
Class 

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COPSRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND 



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OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND 

AND HOW TO USE IT 



BY 

FREDERICK PIERCE 




NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

68 1 FIFTH AVENUE 



Copyright 1922, by 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 



rf 1 






Printed in the United States of America 

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Hflr?15?2 
§)CI.A659138 






J 



To an Unfailing Friend 
To an Inspiring Love 
To an Unfaltering Trust 

and 
To Human Service 

THIS BOOK IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



For permission to make quotations, the author expresses 
his gratitude to the following: 

The Macmillan Company for permission to quote 
from An Outline of History, by H. G. Wells. 

Dodd, Mead & Company for permission to quote from 
Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion, by Charles Baudouin; 
The New Psychology and its Relation to Life, by A. G. 
Tansley; and The Child's Unconscious Mind, by Wilfred 
Lay. 

Henry Holt & Company for permission to quote 
from The Freudian Wish and its Place in Ethics, by E. B. 
Holt. 

Dr. Edward J. Kempf for permission to quote from 
Autonomic Functions and the Personality, published by the 
Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company. 

William Wood & Company for permission to quote 
from The Organs of Internal Secretion, by I. G. Cobb. 



FOREWORD 



THE form of this book has been determined by a 
considerable body of those who will read it, for 
it is arranged to meet the need, so many times ex- 
pressed in my lecture audiences, of a simple and 
practical treatment of the subject that should be 
written in terms comprehensible to the layman. Ter- 
minology, the jargon of a science, is invented by scien- 
tists for purposes of convenience and accuracy; but 
in recent psychological research the progress has 
been so rapid and the lines of development so diver- 
sified that there has not yet been time for crystalliza- 
tion of descriptive terms, with the result that even 
among psychologists themselves there is not yet an 
effective agreement. Tansley's use of the word 
"complex," for example, is in a far different sense 
from that of the psychoanalytic school; and there is 
wide divergence of meaning among various writers 
who use the term "libido," few of them giving it ex- 
clusively the sense in which it was originally used by 
Jung. To discard technical language entirely, in the 
preparation of this work, was well-nigh out of the 
question; but I have tried to use it as little as possible 
and wherever its use was compulsory I have tried 
to define my meaning so that it should be both clear 
and accurately stated. 



viii Foreword 

For the most part I have omitted discussion of 
psychoanalysis and kept to the underlying principles. 
Experience has convinced me that the average casual 
reader of psychoanalytic works has found himself 
hopelessly entangled in the maze of mechanisms for 
which his mind has not been prepared. To under- 
stand the activities of the Unconscious and their re- 
lation to those of the Conscious, it seems to me that 
one should first have a clear picture of such matters 
as how perceptions are conditioned by wish-feelings 
en route to response, and the nature of the difference 
between wish-feelings at the two levels. It seems 
equally important to grasp the relation of mental 
states to endocrine gland activities. Furthermore, 
jsince Suggestion is one of the vitally important de- 
terminants in human conduct, and since I have been 
so fortunate during my work in Switzerland as to 
be in contact with its most advanced theory and 
practice, it has seemed logical to point out its rela- 
tion to what might be termed the Physiological Un- 
conscious — f*he involuntary nerve-and-muscle system. 

The new law advanced — the "Law of Dominant 
Affect" — has proved accurate experimentally and of 
real importance in the additions which it has made 
possible to Autosuggestion technique. A theory, as 
Kempf has remarked, is worth its working value; 
and the applications of this theory have given defi- 
nite results. Critical comparison will show that it 
is a radical advance from the admitted law of auxil- 



Foreword ix 

iary emotion, since the Law of Dominant Affect 
bases the entire technique on the creation and stim- 
ulation of a carefully designed phantasy. 

If any apology is needed for including the section 
on Advertising and Selling in this general work, it 
must be pleaded that in our busy country one may 
fairly suppose a considerable number of readers to 
be interested in the business applications as well as 
in those which relate to home, family, and personal 
problems. 

For valuable suggestions in studies during past 
years, my sincere thanks are extended to Dr. A. A. 
Brill, Dr. Smith Ely Jelliff e, and Dr. Walter Timme, 
of New York. To Dr. Hector Mortimer of Lon- 
don, and to Prof. Dr. Charles Baudouin of Geneva, 
I wish to acknowledge a particular debt of gratitude 
— to the one for his constructive criticism during the 
preparation of the book, and to the other for his 
generous exposition of the Autosuggestion work at 
the Rousseau Institute. Finally toward those groups 
in the cities of the Middle West who first extended 
,to me an invitation to their platforms, there is a 
deeply felt and enduring gratitude for their gen- 
erous and always stimulating welcome. To encoun- 
ter them again will be one of the pleasures of home- 
coming. F. P. 

Celigny, Switzerland, 
October 8th, 192 1. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Explanatory: The Why and Wherefor ... i 

CHAPTER 

I. The Operating Tower 5 

II. Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind . 15 

III. Libido and the Dominant Wish .... 46 

IV. The Endocrine Glands, Compensation 

Striving, and False Goals .... 67 

V. Autosuggestion 89 

VI. Application to Everyday Life . . . .132 

VII. Making a Contented Human Group . . 230 

VIII. The New Psychology in Advertising and 

Selling 267 

Bibliography 321 



OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND 



OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND 

EXPLANATORY: THE WHY AND WHEREFOR 

WHAT ONE MAY GET FROM THESE PAGES FOR PER- 
SONAL USE 

npHE healthiest and most promising sign of the 
■*■ current day in American life is the rapid growth 
of popular interest in an understanding of the true 
inwardness of a human being. It is as if the collect- 
ive mind of the people, unconsciously stimulated by 
evidence of progress that follows research in agricul- 
ture, biology, medicine, chemistry, machines, manu- 
facturing methods, and scores of other branches of 
human activity, was stirring itself to a direct demand 
for the same intensive effort and progress in the field 
of human motives. "If science can improve the prod- 
ucts of the soil," people seem to be asking, "if it 
can raise the standard of living, lower the death rate 
and increase the expectation of life, why should it 
not show the way to a better group cooperation and 
human relationship?" 

It can. It is already beginning to chart the route. 
It has brought to light an understanding of the hid- 
den motives — the real driving power that controls 



2 Our Unconscious Mind 

men, women, and children — which promises to Hu- 
man beings a tremendous advance in the art of living 
together. This understanding has come from re- 
search in the field of what may be most simply de- 
scribed as the unconscious mind; a field which we 
know was one of the thought foci of the speculative 
thinkers of Egypt at least thirty centuries ago. 

Tansley, in the conclusion of his admirable work, 
The New Psychology * remarks: ". . . though still 
in its infancy, still facing a great deal that is obscure, 
still with many of its concepts and analyses somewhat 
vague and hesitating, still without the means of apply- 
ing quantitative methods, the new science of the mind 
has made a definite successful beginning. It can al- 
ready give the conclusions of intuitive wisdom some- 
thing of the precision of science, it can exhibit unsus- 
pected connections, throw light on the dark places 
of the mind, and obtain definitely successful results 
in psychotherapy. Its fundamental postulates, the 
doctrines of psychic determination and of the deriva- 
tion of the springs of all human action from instinct- 
ive sources, are essential as working hypotheses." 

The man who many believe will go down in his- 
tory as the most important discoverer and blazer of 
trails in the recent research is Prof. Sigmund Freud, 
of Vienna. Working in neurology and psychiatry, 
his discoveries, and the theories which he developed 
from them, necessarily dealt with the abnormal. It 

* The New Psychology and its Relation to Life, by A. G. Tansley. 
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 



The Why and Wherefor 3 

is, however, a common experience that from a study 
of the abnormal we learn of the normal. When a 
newly designed machine breaks down, the designer 
learns as much from the breaking as from the ma- 
chine's normal performance. Freud's theories, often 
ignorantly and sensationally handled by writers who 
had only the most sketchy knowledge of them, at 
first met with the reception so frequently accorded 
to discoveries which upset comfortably rutted minds. 
But their essential truth was irresistible, and by 19 15 
we find such an authority as Prof. E. B. Holt re- 
marking in the preface to his admirable book The 
Freudian Wish* "Now Freud's contribution to 
science is notable, and in my opinion epoch-making. 
... he has given us a key to the explanation of 
mind. ... It is the first key which psychology has 
ever had which fitted, and moreover I believe it is 
the only one that psychology will ever need." 

For my part, I am glad to acknowledge that it is 
this key which unlocked the door to my study and 
experiment of the last six years. Therefore to the 
Vienna master more than to any other I owe what- 
ever I have been able to get clear in my own mind, 
and which in the succeeding pages I shall try to pass 
on to the service of my fellow Americans, about the 
following : 

Some riddles in human conduct, our own as well 
as others' — Control and operation of the will (and 

* The Freudian Wish and its Place in Ethics, by E. B. Holt. 
Henry Holt & Co., New York. 



4 Our Unconscious Mind 

better than that, something that can be substituted 
for "will" which makes the attainment of one's goal 
much easier than by "force of will") — Ridding the 
day of conflict and contention — Elimination of worry 
— Growing abler, in place of growing old — Raising 
successful children — A new view of the "difficult" 
child — Tapping the reservoir of greatest energy — 
Setting the unconscious mind at work — A business 
organization that will get more done — Making pro- 
duction a pleasure instead of a labor — Constructing 
a satisfied human group (the practical steps toward 
ironing out some of our industrial and political 
wrinkles) — Replacing personal opinion with exact 
knowledge, in merchandising, advertising and selling. 



CHAPTER I 

THE OPERATING TOWER 

TF the denizens of our large cities, who spend a 
■ part of each day anathematizing the telephone 
operators in central stations, could pay a half-hour's 
visit to one of these stations during a peak-load 
period, there is little doubt that the anathemas would 
cease then, there, and forevermore. For a central 
station telephone exchange is a striking object lesson 
in how nearly a complicated series of human actions, 
mental and physical, may be brought to the state and 
speed of an automatic machine. 

Somewhere a receiver is snatched from a hook. 
On the operator's desk a signal flashes, her hand lifts 
a plug and snaps it into place, her voice inquires, 
her ear registers a number (often spoken indis- 
tinctly), her voice repeats it, her hand snaps in an- 
other plug for the second station, her ear registers an 
answer, her voice again repeats the number. At the 
second station the other operator has seen a signal, 
answered, heard a number, repeated it, snapped in 
a plug and set a bell ringing. Complicated enough, 
in itself, this series of actions, when one considers the 
relatively few seconds consumed in the entire process; 
but add to them the number of other wires that 



6 Our Unconscious Mind 

are signalling or being held while rung by other sta- 
tions, and it quickly becomes impossible for any 
person but a trained operator to follow the speed of 
the perception-and-response pattern. 

Rapid and adroit as it is, however, it can give but 
the palest and faintest impression of the central sta- 
tion of the human body. If I am so unlucky as to 
stick a pin in the end of my finger, the signal is carried 
along an inward-bound nerve path, the perception is 
registered in consciousness, an order is despatched 
over a parallel outward-bound nerve path to a whole 
series of muscles, the finger is jerked away, and the 
whole process of affect and effect has taken perhaps 
the fiftieth part of a second. (The reaction time 
varies widely for reasons that will appear in another 
section.) Speed is not the point which I want to 
emphasize; it is merely of incidental interest in some 
of the functions of the system that we are examining. 
What is really important in the illustration just given 
is the reason why the finger was jerked away. It will 
not suffice merely to say that there was pain, because 
pain is only a name for a certain sort of affect. And 
there are many sorts of pain to which there is no such 
reflexive act as attempting to get away. What hap- 
pened was that the central station received informa- 
tion that the environment of the finger was unsatis- 
factory. Whereupon it called upon cooperative 
muscles to move the finger away; in other words to 
change the unsatisfactory environment. 



The Operating Tower 7 

If now we pass from an external touch perception 
to an internal one — let us take the stomach for ex- 
ample — we may find the same mechanism at work. 
A child has partaken of too much rich food. The 
terminals of the stomach's perceptive nerves transmit 
the information that the internal environment is un- 
satisfactory, whereupon an order is sent over the 
parallel lines to the appropriate muscles and these 
set in motion a reversed peristalsis, thus emptying 
the stomach — changing the unsatisfactory environ- 
ment. A still higher degree of cooperation is in- 
stanced when the blood vessels around a wound 
mobilize the white corpuscles of the blood to fight 
an infection. 

Let us suppose that a woman is passing under a 
lighted gas jet around which someone has been so 
careless as to arrange a paper shade. The shade 
takes fire and ignites the woman's hair. The percep- 
tion of the unsatisfactory environment of the head 
promptly registers, but no good will come of sending 
any order over the outgoing paths to the scalp. Co- 
operation is required here between separate members 
of the body; the order goes to the muscles of both 
legs, which obligingly remove the head from the 
cause of the unsatisfactory environment — and it is to 
be hoped that the hands will do their bit also in 
quickly stopping the conflagration in the hair, thus 
completing the change in the head's environment. 

These suppositions have dealt only with surround- 



8 Our Unconscious Mind 

ings that were unsatisfactory. But if a fragrant 
flower be held under the nose the reaction is quite 
different. The order sent out will be, not to change, 
but to get more. Instead of avoidance of, there will 
now be extension toward, as a response to the stimu- 
lus. The same will be true if sugar is put in a 
baby's mouth; if the eye perceives an agreeable com- 
bination of colors or grouping of lines; or if the ear 
is stimulated by harmonious sounds. 

The principle then is that, of any perception com- 
ing into the central station, one of three things must 
be true of the affect. It must be either agreeable, dis- 
agreeable, or indifferent. And the tendency is to 
transmit orders which will adjust the environment, or 
adjust to the environment, accordingly. The ter- 
minal end of any perceptive nerve may be spoken of 
as a "receptor" (or "receiver") ; the impression 
which its message makes at the central station is an 
"affect"; and the order (if any) transmitted over the 
Outward bound lines may be called the "response" 
or effort at adjustment. Some of these efforts at 
adjustment seem to be wholly instinctive, but in 
studying them we quickly get beyond that level and 
find in them thought processes, habit, and established 
response-models. If I am driving an automobile 
on a main road, and suddenly from a blind intersec- 
tion another car appears directly in front of me, the 
motions which I apply to clutch, brake, and steering 
wheel, are not instinctive ; they are the result of habit 
based on definite models. If these models had not 



The Operating Tower 9 

been formed, and the habit responses acquired, the 
right motions would not be made. Similarly, there 
is no thought process involved; at least none at the 
conscious level; for time is lacking. The thought 
process has been worked out beforehand, during ear- 
liest driving practice, thus establishing the response 
model ready for instant reproduction when needed, 
i.e., when the dangerous environment occurs. The 
tremendous importance of model formation and 
habit response will be seen in later pages dealing with 
practical methods of analyzing and improving one's 
self. 

The muscular processes of a newly born child when 
it is first given the mother's breast may be taken as 
a purely instinctive response to a stimulated percep- 
tion. At adolescence one sees instinct still at work 
but now working through a most complex system of 
stimuli, affects, ideas and responses. The increased 
action of the thyroid gland is stimulating (through 
its secretions in the blood-stream) other glands and 
organs — particularly the procreative system. There 
is an actual change in the chemistry of the blood, 
which acts as an exciter or stimulus to certain nerves. 
This in turn produces its affects; the whole compli- 
cated and wonderful birth and growth of romance- 
feeling in a human being. Scarcely perceptible at 
first, the signs of effort at adjustment multiply slowly. 
Fortunate is the boy or girl in whom this process is 
not too rapid. Under our system of education it 
coincides with the period when the brain is called 



io Our Unconscious Mind 

upon to assume the more intensive activity of the 
secondary school. Later we shall see how the energy 
may be so divided as to make satisfactory school 
work almost impossible. In many children these are 
the most critical years of the entire life. If it is true 
that the seeds of every neurosis are planted during 
the first seven years, it is equally true that during 
adolescence they have their greatest chance of inter- 
mediate growth. 

But to return to the mechanisms: 

The background of instinct, in the adolescent, is 
obvious; and it is equally obvious that no such simple 
act of adjustment as that of the pin-pricked finger, 
or the cooperation of feet and hands with the 
scorched head, will serve to gratify the desire to love 
and to be loved in the mating sense, with all the mani- 
fold adult wishes that follow in train; the ideas of 
companionship, a home, achievement, children, etc. 
It must not be forgotten that whatever models the 
child has for these things — its emotional models, so 
to speak — for various situations, are none of them 
practical. They have not been developed out of 
specific teaching, or out of experience. They have 
come mainly from observation; and in the average 
child they hardly exist in consciousness. (Emphatic- 
ally this does not imply that they are weak. We shall 
see later that they exist mainly in a field which we 
shall call the "unconscious," and that they have a 
very great intensity which is partly primitive.) The 
situation is something like that of the man who when 



The Operating Tower ii 

asked if he could play the piano replied that he didn't 
know because he had never tried. There is a chem- 
ical stimulation going on which produces affects that 
demand radical efforts at adjustment. Neither ex- 
perience nor training has provided any thought 
processes that would establish adequate models of 
response. Unfortunately, in the average instance, 
there has grown up a barrier of reserve between 
child and parents making impossible that simple con- 
fidence by which the child might have steady access 
through these difficult years, to the stored experience 
and knowledge of life in the parents' minds. In the 
hour of our greatest trial we are alone. There 
remains nothing for the adolescent but to make the 
adjustment by the often painful process of trial and 
error; acquiring its own experiences and from them 
developing its own forms of response. At each step 
there will be a thought process; so that from the 
first half-formed phantasies of having a sweetheart, 
through the (usually, I think, unconsciously experi- 
mental) "calf loves," to the final goal of successful 
mating in marriage, and the founding of a home, we 
may trace a series of the most intricate and complex 
cooperative acts, all originating from the same 
stimulus, and all aiming toward acquiring a satisfac- 
tory change of environment. 

The stimulus affect has had to call on thought proc- 
esses. These have had to turn over, examine, re- 
group and consider such images, or models, as obser- 
vation, hearsay and reading have imprinted on the 



12 Our Unconscious Mind 

memory. The orders over the outward bound lines 
have then been to reproduce and try out these models. 
From the results of these try-outs new material has 
been supplied for the thought processes, so that 
gradually, by trial-and-failure as well as by trial-and- 
success, the models of action have been found that 
will lead to the desired goal. 

We must not overlook the fact that all the time 
two conflicting forces have been at work; on the one 
hand the primitive instinctive effort of the central 
station so to operate the machine as to get its wishes: 
on the other hand the effort of cultural training to 
keep the operation within bounds approved by the 
social group. Here then are two divisions of mental 
activity sharply opposed to each other; one function- 
ing chiefly at an unconscious, the other at a conscious 
level. The first is natural, instinctive, primitive, con- 
cerned not with morals or manners but solely with 
securing a satisfactory environment — in other words, 
fulfilling its wishes. The second has the job of find- 
ing a working compromise, of checking the primitive 
when it fails to square with the conscious ethical sense 
and public opinion. 

The main effort of the central station in the fore- 
going instance was toward a change of environment 
that would produce gratification. But suppose a 
manufacturer is confronted with a business situation 
that threatens serious loss. The affect is painful, and 
the effort will be to avert disaster. Fear will power- 
fully reinforce the motive. His thought processes; 



The Operating Tower 13 

have adequate stores of experiences (images or mod- 
els of response) to turn to, but it is necessary to 
arouse affects in the central stations of others; his 
assistants, his friends, his bankers, etc. The series of 
stimuli and responses, with their reinforcing fears, 
desire for money, desire for power, personal regard, 
and the like, through which the trouble is finally 
avoided, would require an entire book for their 
analysis. The final result has been to change an 
environment that was acutely distressing. This in 
itself fulfills a wish. As a matter of fact every opera- 
tion of the central station is toward that end. 
We have now the following principles in hand: 

1. That through inbound and outbound nerve 
paths any perceptive stimulus may produce an affect 
to which there is an effort at response. 

2. That the response, however complex, is in the 
general form of extension toward, or change of, the 
environment. 

3. That response-models are formed through ex- 
perience and observation. 

4. That the response may be instinctive, may fol- 
low an acquired model (habit response) , or may have 
to wait for a thought process. 

5. That the driving force is always a wish. 

6. That the wish may be either unconscious or con- 
scious. 

7. That the two wish-fields are often in conflict. 

8. That the thought processes required are often 
elaborate in the extreme, and that they are always at 



14 Our Unconscious Mind 

the service of two masters — the unconscious and the 
conscious. 

In the next chapter, "Behind the Scenes with a 
Human Mind" we shall see these principles at work 
under extraordinary circumstances. 



CHAPTER II 

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH A HUMAN MIND 

THE following very interesting case of conversion 
hysteria has been selected because by taking it 
apart and putting it together again one may construct 
a complete working diagram of the. human mind; 
not in the sense of anatomy but in the sense of graph- 
ics. The case shows many of the operations of the 
central station, it shows the interplay of the conscious 
and unconscious, and it reveals many things which 
explain human conduct far beyond our average every- 
day understanding of it. 

A man of thirty, married, and the father of two 
children, goes to bed at night apparently in ordi- 
narily good health. He awakens in the morning to 
find that his right arm is fixed firmly behind him, 
with the forearm across the small of his back. He 
is unable to move it. In every other respect he feels 
perfectly well, is in full possession of all his senses 
and faculties. There is no pain in the arm, and it 
is only slightly numb. There is no apparent reason 
why he should not move it and use it as freely as 
ever; but he cannot do it. 

Examination by physicians shows that the arm is 
perfectly sound, and that there is no evidence of ill- 

15 



1 6 Our Unconscious Mind 

ness of any sort whatever. The man himself has not 
the remotest idea why the arm is immovable, yet 
he has no more power over it than if it were para- 
lyzed. If sufficient force is applied by others the 
arm can be moved, but this occasions severe pain and 
when the force is removed the arm resumes instantly 
its fixed position. To add to the puzzle, there is no 
sense of fatigue. This fact we shall find later gives 
the key to one of the most valuable of recent discov- 
eries in methods of doing mental work, a discovery 
which has possibilities of tremendous importance to 
all of us. 

Fortunately, the knowledge and technique are to- 
day available both to give an accurate diagnosis and 
to cure the symptom. The case is one of conversion 
of an unconscious mental conflict into a physical sym- 
bol of the conflict. (Hysteria, a neurotic disease, 
should not be confused with the spasmodic laughing 
and crying commonly called "hysterics.") It is well 
to say "cure the symptom," rather than "cure the 
disease," because while the arm may surely be re- 
leased to its full natural use there is no absolute 
certainty that at some future time the man will not 
give evidence of his hysteric trend in some other way. 

It is not necessary to describe here the psychoana- 
lytic method by which the case is to be explored, fur- 
ther than to say that, with the assistance of the ana- 
lyst, the patient is going to be enabled to recover 
significant memory impressions which, have been en- 
tirely lost to (suppressed from) consciousness. Psy- 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 17 

choanalysis has been so extensively written of by 
competent authorities — and by some who are neither 
competent nor authorities — that there is an ample 
literature available to all who wish to study it. What 
we are concerned with here is an understanding of the 
mental mechanisms rather than of the method of 
treating them when they get out of gear. Arrange- 
ments are made for our patient to have an hour or 
more a day with the analyst, and he is encouraged to 
discuss whatever thoughts may be in his mind or may 
come to him in the course of his talking. For several 
days the interviews may be taken up by an apparently 
pointless stream of ideas. He will be encouraged to 
recall if possible his recent dreams and relate them, 
for a purpose which will appear later. It develops, 
in this case only after many sessions, for a reason 
which also will appear later, that on the very evening 
before the attack there had been a most unpleasant 
domestic scene. The patient had boxed the ears of 
his older child, a boy aged seven. His wife had re- 
sented this, had reproached him angrily, and had 
declared that in thus striking the child he might in- 
jure him for life. In telling of the incident he recalls 
that while he had felt that the boy's mother had 
absurdly overrated the importance of what to him 
seemed only slight and ordinary punishment of a dis- 
obedient child, nevertheless he had for some reason 
felt a sense of guilt and had not been able to make 
any adequate reply. He recalls further, now, that 
very often during his eight years of married life he 



1 8 Our Unconscious Mind 

had felt this inability to defend himself when his wife 
had reproached him for anything. His general de- 
scription of the family life makes it evident enough 
that the wife is the real head of the household, 
that he is in fact dominated by her, although this 
last has not been admitted in his conscious mind; in 
other words he is unaware of it as a domination. 

Aside from the fact that the analyst's training 
enables him to see in this incident the key to his case, 
two things mark it as important. In the first place, 
it is rather noteworthy that this memory of some- 
thing by no means unimportant, which had occurred 
just before the onset of the illness, should not have 
appeared in one of the very first interviews. In the 
second place, the patient's reactions while discussing 
it give evidence of considerable emotional affect. The 
analyst encourages a thorough review of the episode 
with all of the associated memories which it stimu- 
lates. In succeeding interviews these lead back over 
the trail of the years to childhood, and it becomes 
evident from the patient's description of his early life 
that his mother had been much the same sort of ener- 
getic and "masterful" woman as is his wife, quick of 
temper and forthright of speech. When he v/as two 
years old, a younger brother had been born, a child 
who as he recalls quite definitely, "everybody said 
looked like my father," and from then on he felt that 
the mother's love was centered on the new arrival and 
he himself was shut out. "She did her duty by me," 
he expresses it, "but I always knew I didn't count 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 19 

as much as little Jack did. She seemed to care about 
him the way she did about Father. I came third." 

As this series of memories comes into conscious- 
ness, there is a flood of material that seems to urge 
for utterance, and there is marked evidence of its 
emotional character. A point is reached, however, 
when the patient suddenly stops, and refuses to con- 
tinue relating his present train of thought. He takes 
refuge in evasion, says that there is nothing of im- 
portance, or that he is tired, or that his memory fails. 
The practical eye of the analyst, however, has caught 
signs of great emotional tension. He insists patiently 
but earnestly that the chain of memories cannot have 
been broken abruptly unless a part of the mind had 
strong reasons for breaking it, and that the man 
must, for his own sake, continue. The resistance is 
at last overcome and the man relates the following 
circumstances : 

He recognizes that his feeling toward his younger 
brother was always jealousy. He does not think 
that he hated him; indeed he is sure there were times 
when he was fond of the little chap ; but always there 
was a smouldering jealousy and once in a while it 
would flare up quite uncontrollably. On such oc- 
casions he would give way to a fit of childish rage in 
which he tried to square the situation by using his 
small fists. Punishments followed, and their gradually 
increasing severity as he grew older served for the 
most part to restrain him. But on the younger boy's 
seventh birthday there had been a climax. The cele- 



20 Our Unconscious Mind 

bration of the day, culminating with a party, con- 
trasted sharply with the observance of his own birth- 
day which for some reason had been rather slighted. 
At the children's bedtime, the mother was unusually 
demonstrative over her favorite, held him in her 
arms and caressed him extravagantly before putting 
him in his crib, and left the room declaring that he 
was "the sweetest child in the whole world." The 
patient remembers that in an agony of spirit he 
created a phantasy of himself as dead and the mother 
broken-hearted with remorse over her neglect of him. 
The next morning he had started a quarrel with the 
younger boy and was having decidedly the better of 
the fight which followed, when the mother overheard 
the affair and put a stop to it. Four months later 
little Jack had been seized with an illness which the 
old-fashioned country doctor had announced was 
"brain fever," and in a fortnight had died. The 
mother, doubtless hardly herself, what with the 
strain of the sleepless nights and of her grief, had 
bitterly accused the patient of having been the cause 
of his little brother's illness, and hence of his death, 
because of the blows he had struck on the younger 
boy's head. 

At this point, the patient's memories of the trouble 
seem really to have run out. He recalls many minor 
circumstances but nothing that seems actually im- 
portant. Yet the analyst knows that there is some- 
thing missing. Stimulation of the memory has re- 
covered the emotional images on which the present 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 21 

onset is modelled, but there still remains the physical 
image — the fixed arm. It is to this which he now 
directs attention, asking the patient to try to think of 
the connection between it and the events he has re- 
lated. At first, the patient cannot recall any. His 
mind dwells on the brother's death, the mother's re- 
proaches and the terrible guilt which they had made 
him feel. The delay is not long, however, for the 
association stimulus (with which we shall presently 
experiment) is a strong one. His thought drifts back 
to the fight. To being discovered. To the punish- 
ment — and now it comes back in a flash. His 
mother had been violently angry, angrier than at any 
other time he could remember. She had said she 
"would give him a lesson he would never forget." 
She had tied his right arm behind his back and forced 
him to go about with it in that position for seven 
days. 

With the recovery of these memories, and an ex- 
planation of the mechanisms, our patient is cured of 
the symptom. The arm is released. The affect- 
energy, having been given a psychic discharge, no 
longer has to use a physical path. 

If a normal adult becomes involved in an argument 
with an inefficient or impertinent waiter, he may be 
for the moment quite angry, but the anger (emo- 
tional affect) is dismissed as soon as the episode is 
over. Unless the matter is serious enough to report 
to the management, there has been in the mere act 
of reproof a sufficient response to the affect, partial- 



22 Our Unconscious Mind 

larly if it has secured better service, and thus a more 
agreeable environment. Experience, and practice in 
living, supply enough familiar response-models for 
the needs of every day. The adult is more or less 
an emotional veteran, able to take any ordinary 
stroke without wound and without conscious effort. 
Our patient was able to do this. His wife's re- 
proaches annoyed him but he was not conscious of 
any serious disturbance. It was a deeper affect, 
stimulated far back in childhood, to which he had 
at that time been powerless to make any adequate 
response, that caused his trouble. 

How was this old, forgotten affect stirred into 
such extraordinary life and activity again? 

If you will take pencil and paper and set down 
in a column a number of simple words, such as dog, 
blue, high, boy, night, grass, bright, etc., and then 
have someone pronounce clearly each word, waiting 
after each one until you respond, you will of course 
find that after a short interval of time each word 
brings into your mind either another word or a group 
of words in the form of phrase or sentence. When 
"dog" is pronounced you may very likely think of 
"cat"; to "blue" you may respond with "sky"; to 
"high" with "hill" ; and so on. This is simple asso- 
ciation of ideas. But now let us carry the experiment 
a step farther. Instead of the group let us take one 
single word, set it down on a clean sheet of paper, 
retire to a quiet place, relax thoroughly, think of the 
word, and then set down the entire train of other 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 23 

words and ideas that follow through the next quarter 
of an hour. The result will be a good deal of 
material. This latter can then be separated into di- 
visions or groups of related ideas. I will take an 
example from one of my note-books, giving only the 
associations of the first two minutes — some of them 
were slow in forming: 

Stimulus-word, "black"; 

"Black — white — house — mother — sister — tease — 
temptation — pleasure — pretty — she is prettier than I 
— but men like me better — men — I like them tall and 
dark — my brother — swimming — the lake — camping 
— the fun we have — the S. boys and their big 
canoe." 

With "black" as the stimulus word it is fair to say 
that "white" is a simple habit response. The word 
"house" serves as a junction with the first group of 
ideas, which concern the family. The word "tease" 
serves as a junction with some acquired childhood 
association of pleasure with temptation; possibly a 
surviving memory-trace of some purloining of for- 
bidden cookies or jam. The word "pretty" forms 
a junction with ideas of self. "Tall and dark" leads 
directly to an idea of an idolized brother who plainly 
has become the image for selecting a mate. The 
prompt suppression of this idea is significant and in- 
teresting. "Swimming" leads quickly to ideas of 
pleasure derived from close contact with nature, and 
broader social relations. 

The foregoing are simple stimuli applied to the 



24 Our Unconscious Mind 

perceptive nerves (inbound paths) of eye and ear. 
No analysis is required to observe that the stimulus 
soon excites an idea which in turn can stimulate 
an affect in the central station, either agreeable or 
otherwise. And if the stimulated affect is a strong 
one the response may be instantaneous — we are all 
familiar with such remarks as, "I never see lilies of 
the valley without being reminded of death and fu- 
nerals." What then prevents consciousness, which is 
getting all sorts of perceptive stimuli in a more or 
less constant stream during the waking hours, from 
being overwhelmed by the mass of associated ideas? 
Several things. In the first place the affects excited 
by many of the stimuli are of such low intensity that 
no response is required; they have not sufficient 
energy to demand any discharge; no environmental 
adjustment is needed. In the second place an adult 
has acquired so many images, or habit-response 
models, that the adjustments are made almost auto- 
matically, e.g., the many complex motions made in 
driving an automobile while carrying on a lively con- 
versation which engrosses the conscious attention. 
But in the third place there is an active censorship 
which is protecting consciousness much as an efficient 
private secretary protects the General Manager from 
callers who would disturb him or waste his time and 
energy. If we think of an idea as a perception plus 
its first associations, then we can see clearly the action 
of this Censor as the idea arrives at the door. It 
will be to stop all the associations that would be dis- 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 25 

turbing or non-essential. That at least, if not always 
its action, will be its duty. All too often it is not 
working well and we say we are "not able to concen- 
trate," or we are "not thinking clearly." If one con- 
siders all that the Conscious Censor has to do, one 
may easily excuse its not being hundred-per-cent effi- 
cient. 

It is proper to inquire here what becomes of the 
material that is stopped at the door and refused 
admittance to consciousness. It has certainly been 
stimulated into activity, and most of it is easily acces- 
sible if it is wanted. The latter factor differentiates 
it clearly from the material which caused our pa- 
tient's trouble. In his case both the memory, afd the 
affects excited by the aroused memory, were 1 aried 
deeply in the Unconscious and were anything b it ac- 
cessible. An intermediate field is suggested therefore, 
between the Unconscious and the Conscious, and for 
this has been used the term "Fore-conscious," or 
"Pre-conscious." The former name will serve our 
purpose perfectly. The associations, then, which are 
stopped by the Conscious Censor, are in the Fore- 
conscious ; that is, they are within reach of the Con- 
scious. 

That the Fore-conscious is, besides, an affect-field 
(or wish-field) of the central station is also certain, 
since the great majority of our outbound responses to 
inbound perception stimuli are either conscious or 
may readily become so. The effort to change the 
stomach's environment, when the affect of hunger is 



26 Our Unconscious Mind 

registered, is conscious. The rythmic drumming of 
feet or fingers when dance-music is heard, is conscious 
or soon becomes so. The answer to a call; the smile 
and extended hands when a child appeals to be taken; 
the stepping aside at the sound of a motor-horn — 
examples could be multiplied endlessly — all are at, or 
near, the Conscious level; hence are responses to 
Fore-conscious affects. But our patient's response of 
the rigid arm was certainly not at that level, or any- 
where within reach of it except through patient, 
prolonged and skillfully directed effort. Yet it was 
surely a response to an affect, a true effort at adjust- 
ment, feeble and ineffective as it proved. So that 
behind the Fore-conscious there is yet another affect 
(or i- '/ish) field; that of the Unconscious. Its affects, 
or w?sh feelings, are stimulated by ideas. The ideas 
consist of perceptions plus their associations. In our 
patient's case there was a whole series of perceptions; 
touch when he boxed his son's ears, seeing the child's 
avertive movements, hearing its cries, seeing and 
hearing his wife's reproaches. These, with many 
added associations which were aroused, came 
through to the Fore-conscious and were allowed 
access to the Conscious. Assuredly they produced 
affects in the Fore-conscious, but these as we know 
were not sufficient to prevent the man's retiring for 
the night in his usual health. The important point 
for us is that somewhere en route these perceptions 
picked up an association which stimulated an affect 
(or more properly a group of affects) the response 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 27 

to which, to say nothing of the Conscious, was not 
allowed entrance even to the Fore-conscious. An 
additional censorship is established, therefore, be- 
tween the Unconscious and the Fore-conscious. 

Without it we shall soon see that there would be 
no such thing as a civilized human being. The first 
step will be to analyze the group of affects aroused 
in our patient's Unconscious, and thus find out what 
an Unconscious consists of. 

A baby is a primitive being. It has perceptions, 
which produce affects or wish feelings, but it has 
neither morals nor manners. Its sole concern is to 
obtain gratification for the wish feelings; procure- 
ment of what is agreeable and change of the dis- 
agreeable. This direct, primitive, unmoral, wholly 
self-seeking attitude toward life persists for some 
time and its manifestations are repressed only by the 
incessant training, precept and example of others. 
The affects are primitive and uncensored; the re- 
sponses (efforts at procurement or avoidance) are 
likewise. At the time when his little brother was 
born our patient was about two years old. Except 
for the father, he had been in sole possession of his 
mother's attention and affection. At the primitive 
level all affection is in terms of possession. He had 
cared for her to the extent that she was his. With 
the appearance of the baby and the mother's transfer 
of attention, he felt that she was his no longer. He 
had lost her. His love-feeling became conditioned 
with deprivation, jealousy, anger, sense of loss, re- 



28 Our Unconscious Mind 

sentment, protest, hatred of another, frustration, and 
a feeling of helplessness. 

No possible response was adequate to produce 
the desired change of environment. The emotional 
affects had such intensity as to compel some sort of 
action, and at times were strong enough to overcome 
the fear of the mother's anger and punishment, but 
on every such occasion the punishment was sure to 
follow, and with it came the sense of guilt. The 
nature of the entire series of affects was primitive. 
What their every response (effort at adjustment) 
encountered was cultural training — the will of the 
group. The latter was the stronger. There could be 
very little compromise. The primitive had to be 
repressed. This conflict of the primitive with the cul- 
tural is the important part of the mental history of 
all children during the first five or six years of life. 
The elements of the conflict vary with the circum- 
stances of the individual, but always the conflict is the 
critical fact of life. We should not overlook the 
fact that affect images and response-models are being 
formed during this period which will powerfully in- 
fluence responses to affects in later life. 

Our patient's response to the complicated affects 
of the mating urge was eventually to marry a woman 
whose personality in many respects resembled that 
of his mother. The net result was to recreate some- 
thing resembling the unsquared situation of early 
childhood, and the end product was near disaster. 
The childhood series of affects then, with all their un- 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 29 

fulfilled wish-feelings, had persisted for twenty-eight 
years and had retained the possibility of becoming 
fully energized. They certainly were not in the 
Fore-conscious, or the Conscious would have become 
aware of them many times. Moreover, if they 
had remained in the Fore-conscious, the conflict 
would have so occupied the patient's childhood as to 
produce a neurosis and a complete breakdown of 
education and adjustment to life. It is equally cer- 
tain that they were not voluntarily suppressed. They 
encountered superior force. They could not have 
expression. Their pain was completely upsetting to 
daily progress. They had to be more than sup- 
pressed: they had to be repressed. And so into the 
deep Unconscious they were forced, behind the bar- 
rier of the primary censorship; along with all the 
other primitive affects, impulses, wish-feelings, which 
were denied expression by the will of the group — 
cultural training. 

The material of which the Unconscious consists, 
then, and the function of the censorship between Un- 
conscious and Fore-conscious, is clear enough. The 
Unconscious has all of the affects, impulses, wish-feel- 
ings and images of the instinctive primitive. These 
are held in repression by a cultural censorship. When 
stimulated they are capable of carrying, doubtless be- 
cause of their primitive nature, a high energy charge. 
Analysis will show that they are being incessantly 
stimulated. Our experiments in association show 
that it cannot be otherwise, for starting from the 



30 Our Unconscious Mind 

stimulus of a single word the widening ripples can 
sooner or later reach the very shores of our memory- 
experience. 

What becomes of the energy? A study of Freud's 
work on the Psychopathology of Every Day Life 
shows that some of it finds its way out in symbolic 
acts. No motion of the body is meaningless. If it 
has not a conscious purpose it is surely a response 
to an unconscious affect. The same is true of day- 
dream or phantasy. Some affect, some feeling, 
denied its immediate direct expression, is making use 
of a symbol. I may be thinking of a problem in 
psychoanalysis, and suddenly observe that my fingers 
have been lightly drumming a rythm on the table. 
Allowing the associations to become apparent, I 
think of a fox-trot, of many dances, of one in the 
moonlight out of doors, and then of a description I 
have read of the orgic dances of the Marquesans. 
The associations need not be pursued farther to dis- 
cover that we are back near the primitive Uncon- 
scious. In the book mentioned, Freud also shows 
that the inevitable conflict between these Unconscious 
wish-feelings and the Censor is often revealed by 
little symbolic acts such as slips of speech, and errors 
in writing familiar words. To be sure, such symbolic 
acts are also used to give expression to wishes which 
are not repressed in the Unconscious but merely sup- 
pressed in the Fore-conscious; but any adequate dis- 
cussion of this division of the subject would require 
much more space than can be allotted to it here. 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 31 

It is necessary for our purpose only to point out the 
mechanism. The important factor is the amount of 
energy that is used in maintaining the repression and 
suppression of these affects. Every function uses 
energy, therefore the two Censors use it; and the 
amount of energy required must vary as the intensity 
of the affects which are to be repressed. An emo- 
tionally-toned affect is obviously of higher intensity 
than one which is not charged with any emotion. 
Practically all of the repressed primitive wish-feel- 
ings of childhood are emotionally toned. Hence if 
any such affect or group of affects goes into repres- 
sion without having been adequately adjusted, it will, 
whenever excited, require a large use of energy by 
the Censor to keep it repressed. As there is only a 
certain amount of energy available in any central 
station, we may now see, in part at least, why people 
often are unable to accomplish in practical life any- 
thing like what their ability would seem to warrant. 
We shall examine this further in a later section. 

Reference has been made to the fact that the 
secondary Censor, at the portal of consciousness, 
was protecting the Conscious, both to keep painful 
ideas in the background and to keep the stream of 
thought clear. The primary Censor between Un- 
conscious and Fore-conscious is also protective. But 
in the struggle of this primary Censor to keep back 
an Unconscious wish which is striving to break 
through, we see something which may properly be 
called "conflict." It is the battle between the Un- 



32 Our Unconscious Mind 

conscious — primitive, unmoral, wholly self-seeking; 
and the Fore-conscious — cultural, moral, and coop- 
erative in terms of the civilized group. This strug- 
gle, and the compromises which it produces, form 
the basis of our psychology. A thorough under- 
standing of it provides complete answers to many of 
the riddles of human conduct. 

In a preceding paragraph, mention was made of 
the fact that the primitive wish-feelings and repressed 
affects in the Unconscious are being frequently stimu- 
lated by various ideas in the course of the day, and 
that a part of the energy finds outlet in symbolic 
acts. Much the highest type of these and obviously 
the most valuable, is seen in the mechanism called 
sublimation. This is the conversion of the primitive 
wish into a cultural one which symbolizes the primi- 
tive but is acceptable to both Censors. A very prop- 
erly repressed childish impulse to kill may later find 
highly useful expression in the trade of the killer 
and dresser of meat. A child who successfully re- 
presses a precocious procreative impulse may later 
become a most valuable creative writer. The great 
actor may be sublimating a primitive hero-wish of 
earliest childhood. Examples could be multiplied 
without number. In this mechanism a law of com- 
pensation is also at work, but that will be elaborated, 
with its application, in the chapter on glands of in- 
ternal secretion. 

Finally, the third important energy outlet, for 
both the repressed and the suppressed wish-feelings, 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 33 

is in the dream. A whole volume would be required 
to discuss adequately the mechanisms of dreams. To 
those who wish to give it the requisite hard study, 
supplemented by necessary experiment, I recommend 
a year of work in this field as likely to be both 
fascinating and valuable. But at present I propose 
to deal only with such points as are necessary to 
show the energy outlet. Study and analysis of dreams 
through several years have convinced me that 
Freud's theories of the dream are correct. The 
exciters of the dream may be of three sorts: I. 
Ordinary perceptive stimuli, such as touch, taste, 
scent, sound, varying intensity of light falling on the 
eyelids, or an internal state. 2. Undischarged 
affects aroused by ideas in the Fore-conscious: 3. 
Undischarged affects aroused in the Unconscious. 

Always, directly or indirectly (sometimes so con- 
cealed as to appear to do exactly the opposite), the 
dream represents the fulfillment of one or more 
wish-feelings. Either straightforwardly, or in sym- 
bolic phantasy, it creates an adequate response to an 
affect or group of affects. In so doing it discharges 
affect energy. Usually it is censored, but by no 
means always. There is no apparent censorship 
when a child, in response to its stomach's perception 
of the unsatisfactory environment of hunger, in the 
early morning hours, dreams of eating. But in an 
elaborate and apparently meaningless dream there 
is censorship of a high degree. The affects have had 
to make use of symbols, sometimes condensing a 



34 Our Unconscious Mind 

whole group of emotions in a single momentary 
phase of the drama. I have often called these sym- 
bols the "building blocks" of the dream. An illus- 
tration will suffice to show that even in waking life 
a single tiny symbol may stand for a large group of 
affects and ideas. 

Suppose that a woman has motored with a friend 
to a place from which, at the top of a high hill, 
there is a beautiful sunset view. During a half hour 
there she may have seen and enjoyed all the details 
of a wonderful panorama of lake and woods and 
changing sky. Associations form of many other 
beautiful places she has seen. If the friend she is 
with happens to be a man with whom she is in love, 
there may be many emotional exchanges of thought, 
or caress, or both. 

When returning to the motor she plucks a flower 
from a wild vine, and on arriving home presses the 
flower in a book as a souvenir. Years after, com- 
ing upon that flower between the pages of the book 
she may fall into a reverie in which the whole episode 
is recreated and lived over again, with all its ideas 
and affects in full play — the latter getting much sat- 
isfaction from the phantasy. Thus the simple flower 
may stand as a symbol for a most complex group 
of perceptions, ideas, affects, responses, and gratifi- 
cations. So in the dream, the simplest fragment of 
phase or phrase, if "used in the same way that we 
used the stimulus-word "black" in our association 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 35 

experiment, will often reproduce many pages of 
affects and ideas. 

With one other item, the memory, we shall have 
all the elements of our apparatus complete, and may 
construct our working diagram of the central sta- 
tion — the psycho-physical mental apparatus of a 
human being. Broadly speaking, the memory is an 
accumulation of the entire experiences of the indi- 
vidual, added to instinct-traces, and certain shadowy 
hints (which appear sometimes under hypnosis, and 
also in psychoanalytic experiment) of pre-natal im- 
pressions. Its material is subject to all sorts of per- 
ception stimuli, and is accessible to both the Uncon- 
scious and the Fore-conscious affect (or wish) fields. 
In the opinion of most psychoanalysts, no significant 
impression is ever lost from the memory beyond the 
possibility of recall by association or other means. 

We are now ready for our diagram (next page). 

THE APPARATUS 

It may be quite unnecessary to state again at this 
point that our diagram is in no sense anatomical, 
yet Ifeel that it is perhaps wise to emphasize it and 
to suggest the reason why I have not thought best 
to discuss at any length the anatomy of the brain 
and of the nervous system. For one thing compara- 
tively little is as yet accurately known about the 
location of the various functionings of the brain. 
But more important is the fact that a concept is most 



36 



Our Unconscious Mind 




5 



sr < <o ^ 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 37 



During Waking Hours 

In this graph any perception is represented as entering at the 
lower left-hand corner, and going through to consciousness at 
the right. En route, if the perception is strong enough, the 
following things happen: It registers in memory, where it also 
picks up other associations; an affect (wish-feeling), agreeable 
or disagreeable, may be aroused in the Unconscious, in which 
case the primary censorship (c'-c'-c') comes into play; a further 
affect may be aroused in the Fore-conscious, by such material 
as the c' censorship allows to pass; the secondary censorship 
(c 2 ) tends to stop whatever remaining associations would dis- 
turb the conscious. 

During Sleep 

As conscious attention is surrendered in sleep, the energy- 
stream may be conceived as turning back on itself so that Fore- 
conscious and Unconscious flow together as it were. Dreams are 
made of ideas and affects which are active in both. 



38 Our Unconscious Mind 

clear when least cluttered; and from analysis of our 
hysteria case, added to the brief study which we 
have made of perception-stimulus, affect and re- 
sponse, we shall get a clear concept of the mental 
mechanisms essential to the later practical applica- 
tions. Whether an affect-field, or a group of memory 
traces, or any other functioning field, is located in 
one spot — cortical, intermediate or central — is not 
material to our purpose. We are concerned only 
with what happens, and the relation of the various 
happenings to each other; not with their exact loca- 
tion. 

The diagram, then, is not anatomical but graphic. 

At the lower left-hand corner are indicated in- 
ward-bound paths of perception of the various 
types. From experiments in association we can 
readily see that any perception stimulates some mem- 
ory-trace, either instinctive or acquired, and that this 
memory-trace has associative connection with others, 
which in turn link up with still more, in an apparently 
endless chain. In the ordinary course of the day's 
life there is neither suflicient time nor energy allotted 
to any single perception, of the continuous stream, 
for any long chain of associations to form. The 
greater number of the perceptions are being handled 
almost automatically. Each one picks up its associa- 
tion, and the idea thus formed excites an affect, but 
the average intensity is so low that little or no active 
response is required. In this case the expenditure 
of energy in censorship is slight; practically negli- 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 39 

gible. The sight of any single tree in a forest, will, 
if given time, bring its associations forward into con- 
sciousness, and these in passing through the two 
affect-fields will excite wish-feelings which are easily 
perceived on analysis ; but both time and energy must 
be allotted. 

Suppose, however, the perception is of such a 
nature that it stimulates a memory trace to which 
originally there was attached a strong affect, either 
Unconscious or Fore-conscious, or both. The idea 
thus formed will have the capacity to excite the orig- 
inal affect — an affect of high intensity. If this 
affect is of the primitive Unconscious, it will be the 
business of the primary cultural censorship to stop 
the forbidden associations from entering the Fore- 
conscious. Our patient's case is an example of this. 

If the principal affect excited is not in the Uncon- 
scious but in the Fore-conscious, it may be such that 
even though not forbidden by the cultural standards 
of the individual it would nevertheless be very dis- 
turbing to the work with which the Conscious is 
occupied. In this case, the associations must be 
stopped by the secondary Censor, which is protecting 
the Conscious from confusion and splitting of atten- 
tion. For example, the sight of a golf-ball may be 
sufficient to stimulate a keen affect associated with a 
coming match; yet the Censor can instantly inter- 
vene if consciousness is busy, and prevent any aware- 
ness of the affect. 

Sometimes it happens that the energy of the stimu- 



40 Our Unconscious Mind 

lated wish-feeling is greater than the energy at that 
moment available to either of the two Censors. An 
example is the affect of great anger, to which is made 
the active response of hot words or blows. The 
censorship may also be voluntarily relaxed, as in the 
case of phantasy or day-dream of forbidden acts. 
It is worth noting here that this may be the psycho- 
logical motive behind drunkenness, since the effect 
of alcohol is to lower tonicity of the Censors and 
give conscious expression to otherwise highly cen- 
sored words and deeds. Again, the strength of an 
Unconscious affect may carry it past the primary 
Censor into the Fore-conscious where it arouses an 
affect directly contrary. For example, in a very 
religious person some perception may have aroused 
a primitive feeling of murderous hate, so strong that 
it passes the first Censor. In this individual the 
response model established for such an affect has 
been, let us say, recourse to prayer and acts of de- 
votion, the dominant Fore-conscious wish being an 
exemplary Christian life. The secondary Censor is 
able to protect the Conscious, but in the near back- 
ground is an acute conflict between a primitive and 
a cultural wish-feeling. The visible response may 
be a week of much prayer and most active charitable 
work; in which we get a glimpse of one feature of 
the Law of Compensation to be discussed later. 
Such a conflict, with the unremitting censorship 
necessary to keep it back from disturbing the Con- 
scious, is using a great deal of energy. 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 41 

Would it not, we may properly ask, be better to 
let it through to consciousness, provided that it 
could there be adequately dealt with and dismissed? 
That is precisely what psychoanalysis aims at; bring- 
ing the conflicts to the surface, admitting them to 
adult critique, giving them adequate emotional dis- 
charge through discussion, and finally establishing for 
the primitive affects new adult models of response 
in place of the ineffective childish ones. No doubt 
many will say that the response in the instance just 
cited is adequate, and, because of the charities, very 
useful. But what of our hysteria patient? 

His arm became rigid during the night. We 
come then to what is happening in our apparatus 
during sleep. The affects, both Unconscious and 
Fore-conscious, excited by the events of the evening, 
have been considered before. We know the per- 
ceptions which were their origins. We know the 
chain of associated ideas that was stimulated by 
these perceptions. We know that the secondary 
Censor was strong enough to keep all of the really 
significant material out of consciousness. But the 
group of affects excited in the Unconscious was of 
very great intensity. It had never been squared or 
adjusted in any way. To some extent it must have 
forced its way past the primary Censor and excited 
opposite wish feelings in the Fore-conscious, for 
there is evidence of conflict. 

The man went to sleep, i.e., he relaxed his atten- 
tion until outward consciousness of the world was 



42 Our Unconscious Mind 

gone. The energic stream continued, as it must 
until life ceases. But in a sense it had to reverse 
and flow backward. The external stimuli were par- 
tially {"partially'' needs emphasis, because it is ob- 
vious that external stimuli of sufficient intensity will 
continue to produce affects even during sleep) re- 
placed by ideational stimuli. The undischarged ideas 
of the day, often with associated ideas of many days 
before, seem to me from much analysis of dreams, 
to be the most active stimuli during sleep. The 
group of ideas, so far as the patient could recollect 
had not produced any dream. This failure to re- 
member dreams, or to remember having dreamed at 
all, is very common. One is constantly encountering 
people who assert that they rarely, if ever, dream. 
Observation convinces an analyst that they are mis- 
taken. It is simply that the censorship is strong 
enough to prevent the dreams from coming into 
consciousness. Considering the number of thoughts 
which flit through the mind during the day, and for 
which we have afterward absolutely no conscious 
memory, the failure of recollection is far from con- 
clusive. The apparatus is alive. Ideational stimuli 
are present and must excite wish-feelings. In one 
way or another, directly or in symbol, in physical act 
or in phantasy, these must form responses. That 
some of these responses do not get into consciousness 
does not mean that the mechanism has stopped. 

The affects stimulated by the undischarged ideas 
in the mind of our sleeping patient were manifold; 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 43 

but they divide readily into two groups. Culturally 
he wished to be a regular citizen of the world, the 
husband of his wife, and the father of his child. 
These wishes are adult, forward-looking, progres- 
sive. Primitively (an infantile status, from the civ- 
ilized point of view) he wished for the childhood 
situation again; first, because it would bring back 
the image of his earliest love-ideal; second, because 
it would restore his little brother to life and remove 
his sense of guilt; third, because there would again 
be opportunity for savage combat over a woman — 
one of the strongest primitive root-trends, reinforced 
in our patient because connected with his earliest 
emotional image ; fourth, because there would be re- 
constituted a chance to "do differently," to work 
out some response to the situation which would 
avoid the unbearable sense of defeat. In contrast 
to his cultural desires, this group of wishes is in- 
fantile, backward looking, regressive. 

Both the conflict and the energy load are clear. 
If the latter had not been so intense there might 
have been a sufficient response in the formation of 
dreams ; which would probably have been of a most 
disturbing sort. The dream serves to give the Un- 
conscious its opportunity to say its say; to express 
itself directly if the censorship is low, otherwise to 
build its castle or construct its drama from the sym- 
bols supplied by fragments of ideas. Fortunately, 
very fortunately, for us all, a way has been discov- 



44 Our Unconscious Mind 

ered and is being experimentally perfected, by which, 
the conflicts removed, the Unconscious may be led 
to work in harmony with the main wish-purposes 
of the Fore-conscious and thus produce results of 
incalculable value. 

The intensity of our patient's affects, and of the 
conflict, demanded an outlet beyond the measure of 
the dream. Suppressed from the Conscious they 
could not be discharged there. They were forced 
to follow the model that had been most deeply im- 
pressed — the episode of his own physical punishment. 
There was a strong reinforcing association for this; 
the number 7, which appeared in the case so sig- 
nificantly — a sacred number, associated with atone- 
ment — the seven days of the punishment — the 
seventh birthday of the younger brother — the age 
of the son whom the patient himself had punished 
in the evening. 

It should not be overlooked that in thus punish- 
ing himself in response to his wife's reproaches, he 
strongly identified the wife with his mother, thus 
as it were providing a symbol for the constant pres- 
ence of the mother, his earliest love-image, whom he 
now could regard as his own. 

The cure of the symptom resulted from the ma- 
terial being brought forward into consciousness and 
given adequate discharge ; supplying, in other words, 
a sufficient adult mental response. There was no 
further need for the physical response. The in- 
fantile model of effort at adjustment could be aban- 



Behind the Scenes with a Human Mind 45 

doned in favor of an intelligent "grown up" one in 
the form of discussion and logical reasoning. 

But two points remain for immediate considera- 
tion: 

1. Voluntary thought may be seen in our appa- 
ratus as a Fore-conscious wish making use of the 
ideas available to it, as stimuli to the memory traces 
— thus producing additional associations, turning 
them over in new combinations, deductions, etc. 

2. The case of conversion hysteria reveals the 
fact that the Unconscious 'has access to, and can con- 
trol, nerves and muscles independently of conscious- 
ness. Further, that there is little or no fatigue at 
the points of control when the control is being ex- 
ercised by the Unconscious. The tremendous im- 
portance of this will be apparent when we discuss 
the methods by which the Unconscious may be set at 
work. 



CHAPTER III 

LIBIDO AND THE DOMINANT WISH 

WE saw, both in the Unconscious and the Fore- 
conscious divisions of our apparatus, an affect 
field where wish-feelings can be, and almost con- 
stantly are being, stimulated; with the resulting 
tendency to seek gratification either by changing, or 
getting more of, an environment. By whatever 
method, or in whatever direction, the responses are 
made, the purpose of the efforts at adjustment is 
always to fulfill a wish or group of wishes. There 
is then at least one trend in a human being — indeed 
this appears to be true of all life — which is an un- 
varying constant. The basic principle of the life 
urge is compounded of the desire for gratification, 
and the effort to get it. For convenience in analysis, 
it is essential that this driving principle should have 
a name. A literal translation of the word "Libido" 
leaves something to be desired, but its use in the 
new psychology is coming to have very much the 
above meaning, or one closely allied, and "Libido" 
will be used throughout this book to express that 
part of the life-force within us which is incessantly 
wishing and incessantly striving to achieve its 
wishes. The process is going on during the hours 

4 6 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 47 

of sleeping as well as during the hours of waking, 
and the Libido is active at all three levels, Conscious, 
Fore-conscious and Unconscious. 

In Fig. 1 of the diagrams which appear in this 
chapter, I have tried to express graphically the 
Libido of a baby at the age of six months. The 
lines radiating equally in all directions show that 




Fief I, — Libido of an Infant. The wish-feelings (W. F.) are 
freely expressed in all directions without censorship. (See 
text.) 

there is absolute freedom of affect and response. 
The infant wishes freely in any direction, without 
censorship. It has no inhibitions, no forbids, no 
morals, no "manners," no cultural sense whatever. 
It is in this respect a primitive, rudimentary savage. 
Its wish-tendencies so far as we know, are compara- 



48 Our Unconscious Mind 

tively simple at this age. It is well to note the em- 
phasized part of that sentence. Altogether too 
much has been taken for granted about the mental 
life of babies. It is a most promising and fertile 
field for study, particularly for those students who 
will take the trouble to learn the analytical tech- 
nique necessary to a study of the Unconscious. One 
often hears such exclamations about a baby as, 
"Why — it looks so intelligent! — it looks as though 
it were actually thinking!" Of one thing we may 
be sure ; whether it thinks or not, it certainly wishes, 
and tries in no uncertain measure to get what it 
wishes for. Moreover, it extends its receptors 
toward any and every gratification that comes within 
its range of experience. Comparatively little ad- 
justment to environment is required because every- 
body is busy adjusting the environment to the baby. 
The little being is, in a very effective sense, monarch 
of all he surveys. Never after this period will he 
know such complete domination of his surroundings. 
With the passing of time comes discipline; his un- 
censored behavior finds itself opposed by the will of 
the group. How entirely strange it must seem to 
him, at first, that he may no longer gratify his wishes 
until they have been passed by a critique! The 
affects are forming, from both internal and external 
stimuli, but his responses must now begin to en- 
counter checks. From this point onward, through 
childhood, adolescence, and as long as life continues, 
he is to find his Libido in constant conflict with the 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 49 

insistence of others that his responses shall conform 
to the customs and rules of the family and the herd. 
Compliance brings esteem, approval and affection. 
Defiance is followed by disapproval, anger, punish- 
ment and segregation. In Fig. 2 are expressed the 
effects of earliest forms of training and discipline. 
The shortened lines on the upper and lower sides 
are wish tendencies which conflict with the educa- 
tional efforts of the parents and so are being sup- 



£.&. 




£-.m? 



Fig. 2. — Libido of Two-year-old Child. Discipline is begin- 
ning to repress some wish-feelings (W. F.) and force adap- 
tation to the social (cultural) groove. (See text.) 

pressed, voluntarily or involuntarily, or both. The 
lines to the right represent the wish tendencies which 
are reaching out to the more and more clearly per- 
ceived objective world — the forward-looking wishes 
— and responses along this line are not only per- 
mitted but encouraged. The lines to the left are the 
backward-looking wishes; the longings which, in the 
Unconscious, and to some extent in the Fore-con- 
scious, of the average human being, do not cease 
throughout life, for pleasures, relationships, condi- 



50 Our Unconscious Mind 

tions and special privileges of the past. The letters 
"E.M." which appear in each diagram will be ex- 
plained a little later in this section. 

Fig. 3 shows us the growing child which is in 
process of fitting into its groove. The contacts 
with environment, having broadened from the family 
to the school and the younger social world, are now 
expressed by the wavy and uneven lines at the top 
and bottom. They show the active and unceasing 



EM ^EM 




EM EM 



Fig. 3. — Libido of Ten-year-old Child Discipline and 
example have brought successful control of most of the non- 
cultural wish-feelings, as expressed in the wavy lines. At 
the right are expressed forward-looking wishes; at the left, 
those which are regressive. The energy-stream of the 
Libido is now principally flowing forward, to the right. 
(See text.) 

conflict between the wishes of the individual and the 
will of the group; and the longer angles, jutting out 
here and there, express the sharp protests that occur 
from time to time, the violent thrusts against control 
and suppression. At the left are the lines of the 
backward-looking wishes, which during this period 
are usually most active at the Unconscious level and 
hence get little recognition in the Conscious. They 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 51 

may, and in many children do, express themselves 
symbolically in the phantasy of day-dream. 

The lines at the right denote the eager and intense 
affects and responses stimulated by observation of, 
and contact with, people, objects and events. The 
Libido energy is becoming more and more occupied 
with the fascinating possibilities of life as it is, less 
and less being wasted in conflict with the group. It 
is reaching out after a constantly more inclusive grip 
on the world of objective gratification, possession 
and esteem. 




Fig. 4. — Libido of Normal Adult. The non-cultural wishes 
are successfully repressed without sacrificing reasonable ag- 
gressiveness in social contact, as indicated by the lines above 
and below. The main lines of wish energy are forward-look- 
ing, with very little regressive trend. (See text.) 

Symmetrical in its expression, it is not unnatural 
that we should find the Libido of a normal adult 
quite symmetrical in its form when shown by a dia- 
gram. The lines at the top and bottom of Fig. 4 
represent a healthy, aggressive contact with the 
social group. The right is maintained to differ with 
the herd and to insist upon a reasonable degree of 
individual freedom of standards and conduct. (In 
the early days of the Puritan herd in New England 



52 Our Unconscious Mind 

these lines would have had to indicate a greater 
degree of repression). The individual has not 
yielded his prerogative to differ with society, but he 
has reached effective adjustments. The main lines 
of the wish tendencies are all forward-looking, they 
are highly energized, and their expenditures of 
energy are well balanced. We may see in this, suc- 
cessful application to politics, business, mating, par- 
enthood, sports, avocation, social pleasure and 



£. M. 



v.._^.'/r 



-£— ,-PHXWrASY-FORMING. 




Fig. 5. — Libido of Introvert. The social contact is feeble, 
non-aggressive. The wish-feelings are mainly turned inward 
or backward, and seek satisfaction in phantasy or day-dream. 
(See text.) Note similarity of regressive wish lines (at the 
left) to those in Fig. 3. Regression is always towards a 
childish status. 

public service. This type of person is for the most 
part wholly occupied in getting what he wants from 
the world; in which process he is frequently giving 
in exchange something of value to society. His 
primitive Unconscious is kept in successful repres- 
sion or its wishes are being sublimated in useful 
forms of expression. His responses are chiefly in 
line with the affects of the cultural Fore-conscious. 
His interests may be varied or few; in either case 
he is able to apply a large percentage of his total 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 53 

energies along the forward, objective paths of at- 
tainment. Hence very little of his gratification in 
life has to be obtained through inward phantasies or 
day-dreams. 

In harmony with the purpose of this book, I do 
not intend to dwell on the abnormal, or failures of 
function ; but there are two possibilities of the Libido 
which fall under those heads from which one may 
gather much that is of interest and practical value. 
In Fig. 5 I have shown the Libido of a highly in- 
troverted and unadjusted person. The lines at the 
top and bottom show the giving up of the aggressive 
contact with the herd. The lines at the right show 
how the forward-looking wishes have failed to be 
properly energized or to hold their energy. Recoil- 
ing from the struggle to objectify, the introvert's 
wish-force turns inward or backward. Gratification 
is sought mainly in phantasy, day-dream, or memo- 
ries of the past. "Mainly" is emphasized because 
it must be clearly understood that the mere fact of 
day-dreaming or phantasy-forming does not mark 
one as an introvert or unadjusted to life. Many a 
day-dream has been the prelude to a great factory, 
a valuable invention, a brilliant novel, or an advance 
in politics. It is only when it is allowed to become 
a substitute for action that the day-dream needs 
radical attention. 

Conflicts are invariably at the roots of introver- 
sion. The energy is not only being split between 
Unconscious and Fore-conscious affects, but the 



54 



Our Unconscious Mind 



former are sufficiently strong and persistent to main- 
tain an active struggle for supremacy. There is 
not then enough energy available to the forward- 
looking wishes. Hence for the phantasy-making 
"creative" type one would wish not a change of 
temperament but a removal of conflicts. 




*" \D£LUS/ON'\ 




Fig. 6. — Libido of Insane Person. The non-cultural wish- 
feelings here are shown as breaking all social bounds (above 
and below). The sum of all the wish-feelings is expressed 
in a mixture of trends both backward and forward, with 
delusion as a center. (See text.) 

Fig. 6 shows how in some forms of insanity the 
Libido simply breaks through all the repressions of 
society. The process may be gradual and cumu- 
lative or sudden and extremely violent. In either 
case there is a rejection and defiance of the herd, 
as expressed by the lines at the top and bottom. The 
lines at the left and right show the mixed and con- 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 55 

fused trends of both the forward-looking and the 
backward-looking strivings. The Libido of the 
insane person not only rejects and breaks through 
the restraints of the cultural, but also turns inward 
and creates a phantasy world of its own, wherein, 
either directly or by symbol (just as in the dream), 
it achieves its dominant wishes. 

EGO MAXIMATION 

The letters "E.M." appearing at various points 
on the foregoing diagrams refer to one of the most 
powerful impulses in the human personality — liter- 
ally that of making the "I" greater. Under it may 
be grouped motives of possession, acquisition, dis- 
play, aggrandizement; everything in fact which will 
increase the sense of self esteem and of dominating 
one's environment. It appears quite early in the 
activities of a baby, its first forms being independ- 
ent of the esteem or approval of others. This latter 
element, the approval of others, begins strongly to 
condition it, however, as soon as the baby achieves 
something. The first tooth gets quite a demon- 
stration from parents and friends of the family. 
The first tottering step gets even more admiration 
and approval. Two models are thus established 
which are of far-reaching importance. Indeed the 
experience of first standing upright and taking a 
few steps without falling is epochal. The difference 
between lying flat or creeping, and standing upright 
independently, must leave a very deep impression on 



56 Our Unconscious Mind 

the infantile mind. A single act of achievement has 
produced an extraordinary advance in control of 
environment, hence in Ego Maximation, and this is 
strongly reinforced by the unstinted admiration of 
others. 

From this time on, the impulse is constantly in 
evidence and learns to attain its ends in a multitude 
of ways. At three years, it is manifesting itself in 
all sorts of methods of winning attention and praise, 
as well as by the subtler path of conditioning its 
environment through the affection and efforts of 
others. At a later period of childhood, it has not 
only become highly complex but has developed spe- 
cialization. In Fig. 3 the longest lines at the right 
may stand for brilliancy in some study, or ability 
in athletics or rapid advancement in learning to play 
the piano. It is also true that they may represent 
some trait of character, some element of personal 
charm, which the child early learned would serve 
its purpose. In children as young as two years we 
often see the coquetting effort to affect others 
through the child's own personality. I have seen 
a little girl of three who had quite mastered the fact 
that she could accomplish more in her particular 
environment with quickly assumed frown or smile 
than in any other way. And one need not go far 
to find uncountable numbers of young children whose 
first recourse is to cry for what they want. In a 
later section, I shall discuss this in its practical ap- 
plication. 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 57 

We need not analyze the Ego Maximation of the 
late adolescent period except to point out that it has 
now become conditioned by the mating urge and 
therefore will add to the range of its expression. 
The normal adult has gradually acquired a nearly 
complete sublimation in useful channels; his self 
esteem and sense of power come from objective 
achievement. The Ego Maximation of the intro- 
vert finds what satisfaction it can in day-dream or 
memories of past achievements (or near-achieve- 
ments). The insane person expresses it both by 
breaking the bonds of social control (making him- 
self superior to society) and, sometimes, by creating 
a delusion of superiority. 

CONFLICTS 

We have here a diagram which may help, in con- 
nection with the Libido diagrams, to give a graphic 
impression of the waste of energy by conflict between 
the Fore-conscious and some unsquared affects which 
have been buried in the Unconscious. From the 
preceding diagrams we have seen how the Libido 
of the child at two years encounters repressions 
through the will of the group. These repressions 
continue and multiply through all the succeeding 
years of early growth and training. For the most 
part, they are of minor importance in each separate 
instance, but in the aggregate they represent the 
entire process of repressing the primitive; the mold- 
ing and fitting to family and social existence. What 



58 Our Unconscious Mind 

we wish to examine, however, is not the common 
but the exceptional instance of repression. Refer- 
ence has been previously made to the fact that an 
adult, because of acquired experience, is able readily 
to adjust and dismiss most of the clashes of his 
Libido with that of others; and to the fact that the 
child cannot do this. Very often its most intense 
wish-expression is met with sharp punishment. This 
inhibits action, but does not provide any adequate 
response or any form of sublimation for the wish- 
feeling. Careful explanation, or the provision of a 
substitute response-model might make adjustment 
easy, but both are usually lacking. There is simply 
repression by superior force. Now if that wish was 
motivated by the primitive it will not die. Some 
disposition has to be made of the emotional affect, 
the "hurt"; and accordingly the censorship labors 
to reject it from the Conscious. It is eventually 
buried in the Unconscious, and thus forgotten, but 
its memory-trace is not lost; and, if stimulated, the 
idea will surely excite the buried affect. Moreover, 
being a highly emotionalized affect which has never 
been squared, it takes, whenever excited, a high 
energy charge, and its demand for an outlet, an 
effective response, persists for some time. 

Now if we consider the energy stream in our dia- 
gram as moving from left to right, we may express 
these forced repressions of emotional conflicts as 
boulders in the stream (B-B-B-B). Each one splits 
off from the main stream (S-S) a certain amount of 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 59 

energy, and continues to do so, steadily. Energy is 
required again to censor the affect. Energy is ab- 
sorbed again below the conscious level by the conflict 
between the Unconscious and the Fore-conscious 
wish purposes. This loss of energy entirely un- 
known to the Conscious is the cause of many inef- 
fective lives. Psychoanalysis aims at bringing the 



D//RE CT/O/V O/r 



EMEKGY - STREAM 




Unsquared Conflicts 

In the case of conversion hysteria we saw that a series of per- 
ceptions stimulated acutely a long-buried, unsquared group 
of affects in the Unconscious. These were able to accumulate 
a great deal of energy. The above graph illustrates the 
splitting-off of energy from the main stream (s-s-s-s) by 
unrecognized conflicts which arise from undischarged, highly 
emotionalized affects of childhood. (See text.) 

conflict to the surface and giving it complete dis- 
charge, once for all, thus releasing all the energy 
for effective application to practical life. 



CONTROLLING AND OPERATING THE WILL 

Reference has been made, in the introduction, to 
control and operation of the will. Because of its 
close connection with the Libido activities I think 



60 Our Unconscious Mind 

it desirable to discuss it at some length here, rather 
than to reserve it for a later chapter. 

Analysis of any act of will quickly leads to real- 
ization that it is always an effective response to an 
affect or wish-feeling. Kempf, in his studies of au- 
tonomic functions and the personality,* has empha- 
sized this most strongly. He further points out 
that to will effectively is to "wish without restraint" ; 
it is equivalent to saying, "I can do anything if I 
wish to hard enough." Naturally such an assertion 
on the part of the average human being is an exag- 
geration. Very few of us, if any at all, can actually 
accomplish all that we may "make up our minds 
to," no matter how strong the wish. No man or 
woman can control all the circumstances of an en- 
vironment; and in the late war we have seen that 
even the collective will (wish) of a large and power- 
ful group of people cannot always be wrought into 
success. 

We shall have an excellent working concept of 
will if we think of it as an affect in consciousness 
which, if allowed to dominate the conduct, will direct 
the main activities toward a definite goal. To will 
is to wish consciously. To will effectively is to allot 
enough energy to a given wish so that it may control 
the conduct. 

We saw in the study of Ego Maximation, that 
the wish trend has two main paths. One of these 

* Autonomic Functions and the Personality, by Dr. Edward J. 
Kempf. Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co., Washington, D. C. 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 6i 

is related solely to the primitive self. It leads only 
to self-gratification as an end in itself, without re- 
gard to any other goal. The other leads to grati- 
fication through achievement in line with the group, 
and winning the esteem and approval of others. 
The goal of the first is inward; the goal of the 
second outward. The first requires little effort at 
adjustment; the second requires prolonged and often 
arduous efforts. Moreover, the second requires a 
sacrifice of the first. So that the two paths of ex- 
pression of the Libido must be forever leading in 
different directions, the two trends forever at war. 
In the splitting apart of the paths there is inevitably 
a splitting of energy; which gives us again the view 
of conflict, but from another angle. If (for the 
sake of a figure) we say that the mental energy 
of a given individual is equal to ten horsepower, 
and consider that four horsepower may be used up 
in conflict and compromise between the two trends, 
then only six horsepower is available for achieve- 
ment. 

Controlling the will to the highest practical pur- 
pose, therefore, involves directing the wish energy. 
The two paths may be graphically expressed in the 
form of a "Y" laid down on its side with the two 
arms branching toward the right. (This is in 
harmony with all of the preceding diagrams, in 
which the energy is represented as flowing from 
left to right.) 

In this diagram, the staff of the "Y" stands for 



62 Our Unconscious Mind 

the stream of Libido Energy; the upper branch 
stands for the path of Achievement Gratification; 
the lower for Autistic Gratification. The term 
"Autistic" is not wholly adequate, but it will serve 
in 'differentiating the two types. Obviously, it is 
desirable that most of the energy should flow over 
the upper path, but it is within the experience of 
all of us that the inherent tendency is for it to follow 
the lower one. Not only is that the easier way, but 
in a large sense it is the natural way. A human 

\jL/B/DO ^£A/ERGY 




Operation of the Will 
(See text.) 

organism is not, by nature, cultural, moral, ethical, 
civilized, or hard working. Notwithstanding the 
objections of those who still adhere to the doctrine 
of "original sin," the overwhelming weight of evi- 
dence points to the fact that the nature of an indi- 
vidual is neither "good" nor "bad," but simply that 
of an adaptive mechanism reacting to environment 
in its search for satisfaction and security. This does 
not deny the existence of a Supreme Being, or the 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 63 

possibility of inspiration from an extra-human 
source. Quite the contrary. The acceptance of a 
religion is a perfectly definite response toward sat- 
isfaction and security. I allow myself to digress to 
this extent from outlining the will mechanism be- 
cause experience in analytical work has shown me 
that it is of the utmost importance to the welfare 
and progress of many people that their basis of 
critique for themselves should be changed. They 
will make little progress toward self-understanding 
or realization of, and release from, the real cause 
of their conflicts, as long as they ascribe the entire 
trouble to a personal devil or to an inherent wick- 
edness of mankind. 

Returning to the diagram, it is possible to see 
in the case of a man who thinks he wishes to stop 
smoking, but does not stop, all of the effects at 
work. The gratification from smoking is autistic. 
It has no relation to achievement or progress. Its 
effect is partly stimulating and partly soothing, and 
many observations suggest that there is a slight 
lowering of the censorship. Its persistence and 
growth of fixation as a habit perhaps indicate that 
smoking gratifies, in symbol at least, deeply im- 
planted affect images of the Unconscious. From the 
earliest experiments with tobacco the man has reg- 
istered warnings of all sorts as to its effects and its 
menace to health and longevity. He has not ac- 
cepted these because from earliest childhood his eyes 
have told him that innumerable people were smok- 



64 Our Unconscious Mind 

ing without visibly losing either life or health be- 
cause of it. Yet the result of the warnings has been 
to fix an association of fear, and later knowledge 
and experience confirm the idea of possible harm. 
Hence from time to time will occur the idea of 
stopping. 

We will assume, however, for the purposes of 
illustration, that the man does not stop. On the one 
hand is the wish to get the easy gratification and to 
still the discomfort of the unsatisfied wish cravings. 
This is the lower path. The upper path, on the 
other hand, is calling strongly for achievement, 
avoidance of physical depreciation and making the 
body more efficient for progressive attainment. The 
resulting situation is again the familiar one of a split- 
ting of energy and its expenditure in conflict. Back 
and forth at the junction of the paths flows the 
wish-energy, now on one and now on the other. The 
consumption of tobacco is cut down, and this may 
finally be accepted by the Conscious as a compromise 
for the sense of defeat and weakness engendered 
from the achievement failure. But in the very first 
failure, and in every succeeding failure of such con- 
flicts, there is established a response-model which 
gradually acquires the force of a habit. The tend- 
ency becomes stronger and stronger to compromise, 
in favor of the lower path. 

What is to be done? First, there should be a 
searching and honest analysis of every important 
instance of wavering resolution. The opposed 



Libido and the Dominant Wish 65 

wishes should be examined by association until all 
of their elements are revealed. This will sometimes 
lead to surprising discoveries. So much the better. 
Knowledge is the first step toward resolving a con- 
flict. Second, there should be a summing up of the 
difficulties. Habit, the deeply grooved response- 
model of the past, will be one. Intensity of the 
autistic wish, which is to be sacrificed, may be an- 
other. Still another is sure to be a group of fears, 
dimly realized or not realized at all. Uppermost 
among these will be found two which are most para- 
lyzing to achievement action. There is the fear that 
the gratification to come from the achievement will 
not actually equal the gratification of the lower path. 
This is seldom in consciousness, yet assuredly it is a 
factor in the situation. And then there is the fear of 
defeat — the achievement goal may be a long way in 
the future; it may require most arduous work, and 
steady sacrifice of autistic gratification along the 
entire route. Suppose that at the end one fails of 
the goal and the sacrifice has all been in vain? This 
fear of defeat — of having sacrificed all pleasures of 
indulgence and then not getting the achievement 
wish — is, I believe, one of the most paralyzing 
factors in operating the will. 

The first thing to do, after analysis of the partic- 
ular situation, is to strengthen the achievement wish. 
A very useful practice is to make a tabulation, setting 
down in one column all the autistic wishes which are 
to be denied response, and, in the other, all possible 



66 Our Unconscious Mind 

achievement benefits. This tabulation, with a review 
of the analysis, should be kept at hand and frequently 
gone over. The imagination should be directed 
specifically upon the desired achievement at every 
opportunity; not upon the process toward the goal so 
much as upon the goal as definitely settled and surely 
attainable. One should make no mental reservation 
for defeat, such as, "If I am defeated, I shall at 
least have had the glory of trying." The only pro- 
vision necessary for defeat is, "Whenever I am de- 
feated, I shall always hit the line harder next time." 
All this calls for courage; but more than that it calls 
for intelligence. 

The principles, then, are: 

1. Recognition of the trends. 

2. Analysis of the individual situation. 

3. Frequent review of the elements. 

4. Strengthening the achievement wish by intelli- 
gently directed imagination. 

The by-product, it happens, is as valuable as any 
achievement, for every instance of resolving an ir- 
resolution by sending the energy over the upper path 
has formed a new response-model and helped to fill 
in the groove of an old autistic one. Practice in- 
creases facility of performance — a well-nigh invari- 
able law. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS, COMPENSATION 
STRIVING, AND FALSE GOALS 

\\T HAT is the goal of the individual? In all psy- 
" * chology this seems to me the most difficult 
question to answer so that one has a satisfactory men- 
tal picture. The temptation, naturally, is to fall back 
on a formula ; to say that the goal is attainment of 
gratification for the Libido. But this will not serve. 
Like many another formula it merely substitutes an 
idea for an image. From a group of young men one 
gets such replies as, "I want to make money," "I 
want to succeed," "I want to travel, see the world, 
and settle down," "I'd like to teach," "I want to 
learn a business and grow with it," "Whatever I do, 
I want to be my own boss," "Get a good job and stick 
to it, is my motto," or "I want to make a name in 
the world," — with more rarely the highly matured, 
"I want to marry and have a family." For the most 
part, this latter concretion is well beneath the surface 
and when made the subject of specific question seems 
to be regarded rather as a chief by-product. No 
doubt the comparative freedom allotted to men under 
the dual moral standard has something to do with 
this. It tends to give a sense of security to one of 
the strong wish urges. In the highly censored re- 

67 



68 Our Unconscious Mind 

ligious community of the America of an older day, 
there was a much earlier dominance of the marriage 
idea in the minds of young men. Another reason for 
the present lead of the economic over the mating urge 
is threefold; the increasing intensity of economic 
competition, the higher standard for economic suc- 
cess, and the actual difficulty of supporting a family 
in reasonable comfort. 

Among young women the predominant reply is 
"I want to marry." Fewer and fewer will add, "I 
want children," but this factor still remains very 
prominent in answers from the healthiest and most 
normal types. A considerable percentage, even of 
those who have not had higher education, either puts 
some other ambition first or qualifies the marriage 
wish with, "I'd like to be independent." Of interest 
is the fact that among girls of the preparatory 
schools (I have had reasonably accurate observations 
from both teachers and pupils) the dominance of the 
marriage idea is not measured by a sense of econo- 
mic need. It arises partly from a wish to be free 
from the control of home and school, but more than 
anything else I believe that woman's earlier psy- 
chological maturity is responsible. I cannot speak 
for the biological side, but psychologically the aver- 
age woman of twenty-five is as mature as the average 
man of thirty-five or forty; and it would not be far 
from the fact to say that the psychology of both at 
those respective ages is as mature as it is ever going 
to be — in this life at any rate. 



The Endocrine Glands 69 

Strangely enough (strange at least until one has 
considered the hidden mechanism at work) much 
patience and persistence are required to obtain the 
answer which is in the background always; "I want 
to be happy." This then is the true goal. Here 
again the earlier maturity of the female is in evi- 
dence. Analytically, she is earlier ready to face is- 
sues within herself. To admit that one seeks happi- 
ness is, to be sure, not a severe demand upon the 
natural reserves, but it is an admission much more 
readily obtained from a young woman of nineteen 
than from a young man of the same age. 

Happiness is conditioned first upon personal peace. 
Unless the entire organism is integrating and func- 
tioning harmoniously, with the fundamental sense of 
well-being which accompanies that state, there can be 
nothing better than enjoyment — and enjoyment is not 
happiness; it is at best but a palliative. Objection 
may be made to the statement that happiness is the 
true goal, on the ground that a human being reaches 
the highest plane of development only when serving 
others. But if service does not lead to happiness of 
others, and moreover if one is not happy one's self 
in service, then there is something wrong either with 
the form or spirit of the service. 

Inward content is essential to the goal. This is 
equivalent to saying that some can never possibly 
reach the goal, since either physical infirmities or 
force of circumstances often make content impos- 
sible. But to grant that ioo per cent is unattainable 



70 Our Unconscious Mind 

in the world does not release us from the need or 
value of a definite standard as a constructive end. 
Nearly all of us may procure at least a measure of 
the power-and-poise sense, the dynamics, of physical 
and psychological harmony. 

It is necessary first to distinguish true goal from 
false goal. Not long ago there died in the United 
States a man who had acquired everything that is 
commonly thought of as constituting happiness ; huge 
fortune, satisfactory family relations, successful 
children, comfortable homes in the city and country, a 
record of valuable public service, a large group of 
friends. He died, as for many years he had lived, 
disappointed and unhappy. Those who knew him 
best say that for thirty years he devoted all of his 
great energy to the goal of acquisition. He acquired 
much. But en route he lost two things. One, the 
lesser in importance, was the ability to relax, either 
for rest or play. The other was the ability to love 
anything which he could not claim as his own. To 
my mind the pitiful thing is that he went down to his 
grave without having found out the cause of his dis- 
appointment. He could not pass on the lesson to 
others. 

Nearly every one of us, to greater or less degree, 
is pursuing one or more, usually more, false goals. 
Either religion, or philosophy, or simple common 
sense, might lead us to that conclusion. And each 
of the three might point out a way to rectify matters. 
But unfortunately no one of the three can rid us of 



The Endocrine Glands 71 

the fundamental unconscious conflicts that cause the 
faulty distribution of energy. They can only suggest 
a needed repression and offer a substitute for the 
repressed wish; the net result being neither the best 
in religion, ethics, nor sensible living. 

The true goal, happiness based on a complete and 
enduring sense of well-being, may be synthetized 
from the preceding chapters as follows: 

1. Successful repression, in the deep Unconscious, 
of the abandoned infantile-primitive affects and re- 
sponse-models of early childhood. Among these, for 
example, will be such as possession, rivalry, jealousy, 
submission, or domination, as an association with 
love ; possible mixed feeling of love-and-hate for any- 
one; fixation on a parent or older brother or sister 
as the model for future loves (such fixation results 
later in the conflict with the biological urge to choose 
a mate widely differentiated from one's own family, 
sometimes making permanent love or marriage well- 
nigh impossible). By successful repression is meant 
a repression that is thorough, permanent, and not re- 
quiring great censoring energy. 

2. Successful development, in the Fore-conscious, 
of a clearly perceived, well-rounded group of ambi- 
tious purposes toward life. 

3. Elimination of any unsquared conflicts by bring- 
ing them to the surface, submitting them to intelli- 
gent examination, and thus releasing their energy. 

4. Understanding and directing the wish-force 
(will). 



72 Our Unconscious Mind 

5. Choosing sublimation channels that provide 
pleasure in work. 

To these might shortly be added; comprehending 
the nature, reason for, and significance of, the false 
goals. 

As to the nature of the latter, a false goal invari- 
ably represents the expenditure of energy a part of 
which belongs to another channel. The man who 
exaggerated his acquisitive striving had to subtract 
from something else. The weak-minded courtesan, 
who puts luxury and ease before honor and reputa- 
tion, has misplaced the energy of mating and home- 
making. The politician who sacrifices principles to 
success, assuredly has closed some of the finest energy 
paths within himself. The man who in his marriage 
has unconsciously sought a mother more than a wife, 
must, in the process, have abandoned a more pro- 
gressive mating goal. The artist who yields every- 
thing else to art has denied energy to many paths. 
Sailors yield the social and domestic wishes to love of 
the sea. The individual who makes friends only 
with others of the same sex is frustrating biological 
purposes as well as substituting a regressive group 
contact for an aggressive one. 

These few examples will serve to suggest many 
others. The world sometimes profits by the indi- 
vidual's concentration on a false goal. The indi- 
vidual, even, may profit, because the false goal may 
represent the only satisfactory compromise of an 
otherwise intolerable conflict; but the false goal re- 



The Endocrine Glands 73 

mains a partial frustration of the psycho-physical 
organism. This fact must be recognized. It does 
not imply a reproach. The student of analytical psy- 
chology soon faces the conclusion that reproaches are 
perhaps the most pointless things in all human cri- 
tique. 

For every action there is a reason. Effective 
change of action calls for first understanding the rea- 
son. In discussing the reason for the false goals, I 
shall include the significance of them, for the two 
properly go together. The roots may be psychical, 
or physical or both. In preceding chapters, we have 
seen some of the possibilities of conflicts in the psy- 
chic stream and I have endeavored to make clear the 
origin of the conflicts when those origins were psy- 
chological. The persistence (through unsuccessful 
repression) of an over-energized primitive affect, 
with an immature, ineffective, early childhood re- 
sponse model, is quite sufficient to misdirect the adult 
wish-energy. Our hysteria patient was an extreme ex- 
ample of this. The man who has had a domineering 
father, and who in turn seeks to dominate his entire 
household, is a more common exemplification of the 
principle. The young woman who seeks always the 
society of women much older than herself is warping 
her social conduct to gratify a persisting infantile 
wish for a world consisting of self and mother. But 
there are many false-goal strivings which are not at 
all, or only partially, explained by this mechanism. 
Another young woman, whose conduct exactly paral- 



74 Our Unconscious Mind 

Ids that of the one just referred to, may point out 
that until she grew up she had not only never been 
particularly fond of her mother, but had in fact 
treated the mother rather badly. In this case we 
have a compound reason for the false goal. Recreat- 
ing the childhood image of herself and a woman 
much her senior, not only serves as a symbol for a 
period which held strongly emotionalized affects — 
perhaps unsquared, hence seeking expression — but 
also in the devoted friendship now shown to the 
older person she is compensating for an unconscious 
feeling of reproach over not having given the mother 
that affection which she has been taught was due a 
parent. 

This latter mechanism, compensation, we shall find 
to be the most important of all factors in the false- 
goal striving. Sometimes, as in the foregoing In- 
stance, mainly psychical in origin and expression, it 
is nevertheless, in the opinion of many authorities, 
rarely without a physical element at its root. Indeed 
Dr. Alfred Adler of Vienna, if one may judge from 
his published works on the neuroses, would appear 
to regard the physical factor not only as invariably 
present, but actually indispensable to the formation 
of a fictive goal. This seems to me an extreme view. 
However, the physical roots are of such importance 
that a brief study of them will be of constructive 
value. 

If a boy is so unfortunate as to lose the use of a 
leg, either as the result of disease or by actual ampu- 



The Endocrine Glands 75 

tation, there will be a partial compensation through 
the greater development of the other leg. We can 
hardly think of this as resulting from a greater 
amount of nourishment being available for the re- 
maining leg, since if that were the case the removal 
of all four limbs would surely produce a gigantic 
body. Nor can the compensating growth be attrib- 
uted solely to the greater amount of exercise en- 
tailed on the one leg which has to serve for two. I 
have the record of two young men who from the 
ages of fifteen to twenty-two concentrated all their 
gymnastic and out-door athletics on leg development, 
yet in spite of their specialized efforts, supplemented 
by good health and excellent nutrition, the results are 
scarcely noticeable. The gymnastic instructor of a 
large athletic club assures me that the most intensive 
specialization often fails of anything more than an 
unimportant increase in facility. To get a marked 
compensation there must obviously be at work some 
Unconscious directing wish; something which is 
steadily occupied with its purpose, which is highly 
energized, yet which does not absorb the attention 
to the exclusion of conscious concern with the rest 
of the affairs of living. The constancy of effort seems 
to be indispensable. We may recall here that our 
hysteria patient was discharging without cessation, a 
highly concentrated, and highly effective, stream of 
energy in his rigid arm, yet there was little sense of 
fatigue. The compensation response, then, is to a 
wish which is constantly and extraordinarily ener- 



76 Our Unconscious Mind 

gized. It may be in the Fore-conscious, and partly 
at least, appear in the Conscious; but it must be 
reinforced by an affect in the primitive Unconscious. 
The boy who has lost a leg is placed at a disadvan- 
tage. Both in appearance, and resourcefulness as a 
physical organism, he must realize his inferiority to 
everybody around him. The emotional affect is pro- 
found, and there is no adequate response in his ex- 
perience. From time to time he may be made the 
target of rough humor, ridicule and taunts. Humilia- 
tion, rage, envy, hatred, jealousy — all these may be 
aroused, in highly primitive forms. In his helpless- 
ness he may develop an inordinate desire for love 
and protection. 

Unlike his average playmate he is obliged during 
the period while his body is readjusting, at nearly 
every movement to be conscious of himself; partic- 
ularly to be conscious of the remaining leg which 
must learn new adaptations. This leg becomes, as it 
were, the focus of a tremendous wish-energy which is 
reinforced by the primitive emotional affects. Later, 
as adjustment and adaptation progress, there will be 
a broadening out of the compensation. The early 
sense of inferiority may be squared by proficiency in 
the use of the arms, by mental attainment, by charm 
of disposition; or regressively, by an attitude of per- 
manent dependence on others, or an habitual irasci- 
bility of temper. 

Someone has said, "As soon as you become aware 
of your digestion it's a sign you are in danger of 



The Endocrine Glands 77 

losing it." This is equally true of one's self esteem. 
With any serious failure of function comes height- 
ened consciousness of self and realization of lowered 
power. Remembering the Ego Maximation element 
of the Libido we can see at once that such a situation 
for a child is a direct blow at its evaluation of itself, 
in other words at its self esteem. If the situation is 
prolonged there must inevitably follow a sense of in- 
feriority. This is serious enough when, as in the 
instance just discussed, it is at the Conscious level, 
for its train of associated Unconscious affects may 
make compensation difficult. But when the failure 
of function is unrecognized, thus producing a sense 
of inferiority which is also unrecognized, the possi- 
bilities are serious indeed. Consideration of them 
must begin with an outline of the activities of certain 
vitally important glands of the body. 

In the chapter on "The Operating Tower," we 
saw that the characteristic responses of adolescence 
came as the result of affects stimulated by increased 
glandular activity. The thyroid gland, particularly, 
speeds up at that period, and the increased quantity 
(perhaps also a change in the quality) of its secre- 
tions has a directly stimulating effect on the organs 
of procreation which thereupon show a steady 
growth to maturity. Some of these organs in turn 
have secretory processes and thus add new chemical 
products to the blood-stream. Various changes take 
place in other parts of the body, both structural and 
functional, and these are accompanied by changes in 



78 Our Unconscious Mind 

the mental outlook and development. It is plain not 
only that new stimuli are at work, but that a new 
process of mobilization is going on — the mobiliza- 
tion of specific food values, and directed energy 
streams, at particular points. 

One of the most interesting features of the human 
system is its series of manufacturing plants in which 
are produced the chemical agents necessary to mobi- 
lize the constituents of food. And it is a part of the 
fine natural economy that the secretions containing 
these chemical agents should serve several other pur- 
poses also. In general, each may be said to have 
an alterative effect upon the others, or at least upon 
the activities of the other plants; also they act upon 
the inward-bound nerve paths as exciters of affects 
in both the Unconscious and the Fore-conscious wish- 
fields. However, fascinating as is the study of these 
organs, we must not be led away from our main pur- 
pose which merely requires a recognition of their 
possibilities as related to compensation. I shall 
therefore confine myself to a brief outline. 

They are variously called, "endocrines," "ductless 
glands," "organs of internal secretion," "endocrine 
glands," etc. I shall use the latter term. The 
endocrine glands, then, produce secretions which 
enter the blood-stream and vitally affect the bodily 
structure and functions. 

The Pituitary Gland. This is a small gland, about 
the size of a hickory-nut, located near the center of 
the head, directly under the third ventricle of the 



The Endocrine Glands 79 

brain, where it rests in a little cup-like depression in 
the bony floor-plate of the skull. Its secretions have 
an important part in the mobilizing of carbo-hy- 
drates, maintaining blood-pressure, stimulating other 
glands, and maintaining the tonicity of the sympa- 
thetic nerve system. Its under, or over, activity 
during childhood (and under some conditions during 
later life) will produce marked characteristics in the 
body structure, and, what concerns us more, equally 
marked characteristics of mental development and 
function. 

The Thyroid Gland. Located at the frontal base 
of the neck, extending upward in a sort of semicircle 
on both sides, with the Parathyroids near the tips. 
The thyroid secretion is important in mobilizing both 
proteids and carbohydrates; it stimulates other 
glands, helps resist infections, affects (with the pitui- 
tary and other secretions) the hair growth, and in- 
fluences the organs of digestion and elimination. It 
is a strongly determining factor in the all-around 
physical development, and also in the mental func- 
tioning. A well-balanced thyroid goes a long way 
toward insuring an active, efficient, smoothly coordi- 
nated mind and body. 

The Adrenal Glands. Located just above the 
small of the back, these organs have been called by 
some writers the "decorative glands," since one of 
their functions appears to be that of keeping the 
pigments of the body in proper solution and distribu- 
tion. But of greater importance is the agency of the 



80 Our Unconscious Mind 

adrenal secretion in other directions. It contains 
a most valuable blood-pressure agent; it is a tonic to 
the sympathetic nerve system, hence to the involun- 
tary muscles, heart, arteries, intestines, etc., as well as 
to the perceptive paths. It responds to certain emo- 
tional excitements by an immediate increase in vol- 
ume of secretion, thus increasing the energy of the 
whole system, and preparing it for effective response. 

The Pineal, Thymus, Pancreas, Liver, The Sex 
Glands. These are mentioned merely to give an idea 
of the complete chain of the most important endo- 
crines. Further review of the glandular functions 
and effects would only serve to multiply examples 
without adding anything to the essential point. It 
may be well, however, to emphasize, in passing, the 
following facts about the secretions of the sex 
glands: i. They are in part taken into the blood- 
stream; 2. They energize both the brain and muscles 
to a marked degree; 3. They interact with, and upon, 
other glands ; 4. They excite a most complex and im- 
portant system of affects; 5. Their insufficiency re- 
sults in greatly lowered sense of personal power. 

Let us now consider some of the possibilities as 
related to compensation. The normal child, with a 
properly balanced endocrine system, has compara- 
tively little need for concentration of attention upon 
itself or within itself. It is amply resourceful and 
well adapted to its usual environment. It is filled 
with a satisfying sense of power. and well-being. Its 
self esteem is high, without specialized exaggeration. 



The Endocrine Glands 8i 

But let us assume that the endocrine system is out of 
balance. This may occur through inheritance; the 
glandular family history is both interesting and im- 
portant. It may occur as the after effect of some 
infectious disease; for example, measles, mumps, 
scarlet fever, influenza, diphtheria, all of which are 
likely to leave their marks in faulty function of one or 
more endocrines. It may occur through badly bal- 
anced diet. Or it may occur, though I believe more 
often in later life than in childhood, through deep 
and prolonged emotional disturbance. (There are 
ample observations to show that a child who lives 
constantly in great fear must suffer from deranged 
function of the adrenals, if not of other glands.) 
From whatever the cause, the unbalance is likely to 
have deep and far reaching effects. There will be 
over development in some directions and under de- 
velopment in others. Coordination may be faulty. 
The mind may work slowly, with lack of attention, 
and poor memory. There may be little muscular 
energy, and low resistance to fatigue. Extreme fat- 
ness or thinness, or other physical variation may en- 
sue. But we are less concerned with the evidences 
than with the responses which will inevitably follow. 
First of all, there will be, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, a sense of inferiority. However satisfied the 
"different" child may externally appear to be, analy- 
sis of its conduct will show that the deeper layers 
of the mind, at least, are aware of the difference and 
acutely concerned about it. The compensation, to be 



82 Our Unconscious Mind 

sure, may take the form of visible self conceit, but 
this only demonstrates how great was the need to 
reinforce the weakened esteem of self. There will 
be a heightened self-consciousness. In studying chil- 
dren of various ages who showed mild glandular 
unbalance, I have yet to see one in whom this factor 
was not present. It is as if the Central Station, fully 
aware that something is wrong, proceeds to occupy 
itself with ways and means to compensate for the 
difficulty, until the self-centered attention finally 
breaks through to the consciousness as a fixed habit, 
without its significance being realized. The self-con- 
sciousness is increased also, in many cases, by the 
continuous excitation of special affects through ex- 
cessive activity of some gland. The whole process 
might be expressed in four terms. First, a disturb- 
ance of the organism's vital balance. Second, un- 
conscious realization of lowered adaptability to en- 
vironment. Third; the resulting unconscious sense 
of inferiority as a machine. Fourth; the unconscious 
effort at compensation. 

As three of these terms are at the Unconscious 
level, I want to recall our hysteria case for a moment 
because it revealed how completely physical processes 
can be directed and controlled at that level. We saw 
in our patient that the Unconscious has at its service 
the complete mechanism of perception, affect and 
response. The Central Station which is getting 
faulty service from its connecting endocrines must 
concentrate on making up for the deficiency as best 



The Endocrine Glands 83 

it can. For example, if the adrenals will not make 
the proper response to danger by quickly preparing 
the body for flight or fight, then there must be com- 
pensation through heightened caution to avoid the 
possibility of danger. The following extracts from 
actual studies will serve to show some of the varied 
lines of compensation. 

1. A boy of fourteen. Healthy and aggressive 
until the age of four, he had then had diphtheria. 
For two or three years after, he had showed the 
greatest timidity and fear when any other boy, even 
though smaller than he, became quarrelsome. Grad- 
ually a change came; he began to "show fight." At 
fourteen he was the school bully, and decidedly in 
need of psychological correction. An over-compensa- 
tion, with exaggerated self assertion, becoming fixed 
as a false goal which could certainly not lead to a 
well-rounded, happy adjustment to life. 

2. A boy of seventeen with physical signs of pitu- 
itary variation. Very tall and thin. Had made des- 
perate- but ineffectual efforts to develop himself 
symmetrically like his companions. Was acutely self- 
conscious and always depressed over his failure in 
athletics. Happened to win a prize in biology, gave 
up the false goal of competitive athletics, and today 
is a brilliant laboratory specialist. 

3. A girl of eleven. Had had measles twice, both 
times severely. Showed evidence of general endo- 
crine unbalance. For several years had seemed un- 
able to adjust herself to discipline or mental applica- 



84 Our Unconscious Mind 

tion. To avoid punishments she developed a habit of 
adroit and continuous lying. Poverty reinforced her 
sense of inferiority to her companions. She compen- 
sated by stealing food, clothes, books, and trinkets. 
The false goals, if retained, meant a criminal life. 

4. A young man of twenty-two. Pituito-thyroid 
variation. His childhood history was one of gradual 
retirement from aggressive contact with other boys. 
He had been highly imaginative and sensitive. Ex- 
traordinary tallness and thinness had brought on him 
much ridicule. He is today entirely convinced that 
the present state of society is a criminal conspiracy 
of the strong to enslave the weak; in brief he is a 
destructive radical. 

5. A man of forty-seven. Short and stout. In- 
sufficient thyroid, with a family history which indi- 
cates that it is an inherited condition. Suffered from 
alimentary difficulties and sense of general weakness 
and futility all through childhood. Has from the 
age of eighteen been engaged in an intense struggle 
to get and save money. Has never married for fear 
of the expense of keeping a family. The compensa- 
tion is acquiring money-power as a substitute for the 
missing sense of personal power; reacting to constitu- 
tional inferiority by acquiring a false symbol of 
superiority. 

6. A girl of sixteen. Variant pituitary, insufficient 
thyroid. First eight years frail and delicate, with 
rapid growth in height but subnormal weight; sensi- 
tive and self-conscious. Compensated by marked ex- 



The Endocrine Glands 85 

hibitionism and acquirement of many acts which could 
be performed before an audience ; thus powerfully re- 
inforcing the doubtful self esteem. Glandular and 
psychological treatment released the energy from the 
false goal, and her unusual mind, supplemented by 
an adjusted body, found its real possibilities. 

7. Woman of thirty-one. X-ray of head shows 
malformation of the bony cup in which lies the pi- 
tuitary. Unusually large head, legs disproportion- 
ately short for the body. History of life-long moral 
weakness, with lying as a safeguard. Acutely self- 
conscious. Mental development arrested and proc- 
esses slow. Compensates for the inability to handle 
the world aggressively, by exaggerated affability and 
instant agreement with anybody about everything. 

8. Young man of twenty-one. Pituitary variance 
and adrenal insufficiency. Nearly died of influenza 
in early childhood. Seemed to have a good mind but 
was unable to use it. The backwardness in school 
brought reproaches and humiliation to the self-con- 
scious boy, and he abandoned school early with pre- 
cocious ideas of marriage, children and "making a 
name in the world." In these we see a compensation 
striving; the desire to prove himself "a complete 
man," far in advance of his fellows. He became 
remarkably handsome and the compensation-wish 
seized upon this and urged him into moving pictures 
where the sense of mental inferiority may be squared 
by appearing as a star not only before applauding 
thousands but before himself. The false goal here 



86 Our Unconscious Mind 

is not the profession chosen, but the inordinate con- 
centration on self. 

9. A woman of fifty-six. Evidences of life-long 
pituitary, thyroid and adrenal variances — a so-called 
"pluriglandular syndrome." Physique by no means 
badly proportioned, but features unfortunately large 
and skin of coarse texture. History of several severe 
attacks of infectious diseases during early childhood 
in an English village. Her unattractive appearance 
was often slightingly referred to at home. Ado- 
lescence came early. She greatly desired the society 
of men, marriage, home, children, but these wishes 
were never fulfilled. Her brothers stated that she had 
never been able to keep any men friends "because 
she talked them to death about herself." The com- 
pensation appeared, when the case was studied, in 
the form of endless fictitious reminiscences about 
men who had been in love with her. To judge from 
her conversation one would have had to believe that 
nearly every man she had ever known had been her 
devoted and hopeless suitor. (One sees the same 
mechanism — getting compensation through phantasy 
or day-dream — quite frequently, both among chil- 
dren and adults. It is a very common type of false 
energy goal.) 

10. Young woman of eighteen. History indicates 
pituitary variance and some adrenal insufficiency. 
Tall and athletic in build. Adolescence began early 
but made slow progress. Contours approach mascu- 



The Endocrine Glands 87 

line rather than feminine cast, and the chief interests 
are in masculine pursuits. Procreative system seri- 
ously retarded. No interest in boy friends, but many 
over-emotionalized friendships for girls. Here the 
compensation for the unconscious sense of inferiority 
as a woman has taken the form of a symbolic mascu- 
line striving, which is, of course, a false goal for a 
feminine organism. Glandular and psychological 
assistance will probably result in both physical and 
mental readjustment. 

The foregoing examples will suffice to suggest the 
many-sidedness of the efforts at compensation. The 
result is sometimes a valuable compromise for a situa- 
tion which cannot be remedied, but in general the 
false goal is a misdirection of energy; a dispropor- 
tionate use of it. The first point of correction is the 
glands themselves, if they are out of balance, but 
following this there should be an earnest effort, 
through analysis and intelligent direction of the wish' 
force (will), toward the acquirement of all-around 
effective adjustment to life. 

With brief mention of one more point I shall leave 
further treatment of this subject until we come to its 
place in the study of auto-suggestion. I have tried to 
make clear that the endocrine glands are charged 
with mobilizing the food values, and that their 
proper functioning makes for a vigorous mind and 
body. Conversely, their failures of functioning may 
result in enfeeblement. It follows that the person 



88 Our Unconscious Mind 

who wishes to "remain young," to retain effective, 
all-around, vital energy, must keep the endocrine sys- 
tem working in good order. With this thought in 
mind we will turn to the consideration of one of the 
means which should not be overlooked in seeking 
this end. 



CHAPTER V 
AUTOSUGGESTION 

THE WORK OF THE NANCY AND ROUSSEAU SCHOOLS 

/^UR hysteria case must furnish us with yet one 
^^ more point of departure. We traced and ana- 
lyzed, step by step, the process and mechanisms 
which led from a very ordinary domestic scene to a 
most extraordinary locking of the patient's right arm 
behind his back, and we saw how it was possible to 
cure him by reawakening memories of a conflict 
which carried too great an energy-charge for expres- 
sion through the channels habitually used by the Un- 
conscious. We saw in the rigid arm a steady dis- 
charge of both muscular and nervous energy, and un- 
like all voluntary actions it did not cause proportion- 
ate fatigue. This is a most important point. If any 
of us should attempt to duplicate the patient's mus- 
cular feat, there would be weariness and numbness. 
All conscious actions will bring fatigue if persisted 
in. The mere fact of being awake, even though 
there is no conscious expenditure of muscular energy, 
will sooner or later bring fatigue; from which it is 
obvious to deduce that attention itself is an act, and 
a voluntary one. Indeed it is a most highly complex 
act for it involves a heightened tonus of all the per- 



90 Our Unconscious Mind 

ceptive paths, as well as some of the projecting ones. 
It is a condition of at least partial readiness to react 
to external things. The involuntary activities of the 
body, on the other hand, produce little fatigue, or 
none at all, at least in a recognizable sense. The 
heart pumps tirelessly, the lungs inflate and deflate in 
response to an unwearying diaphragm, the arteries, 
the peristaltic function of the alimentary canal, the 
endocrines, the lymphatics, all maintain their opera- 
tions without sensible fatigue. And they are oper- 
ated intelligently; moreover unconsciously. The 
whole involuntary system is a highly coordinated, 
highly cooperative set of activities controlled by a 
directing function of the central station. 

How do we know they are not merely the parts 
of an automatic machine which once set in motion 
needs no direction? 

There are many answers, but two or three will 
suffice. They react to external perceptions; for ex- 
ample at the eye-perception or ear-perception of dan- 
ger there will be an immediate call on the adrenals 
which will respond by pouring additional secretion 
into the blood-stream. The sympathetic nerve sys- 
tem is stimulated, raising the speed of the heart, and 
increased sugar is supplied for emergency muscular 
effort. As Cobb puts it in his book, The Organs of 
Internal Secretion:* "The activity of the suprarenal 
(adrenal) glands, in company with the sympathetic 

* The Organs of Internal Secretion, by I. G. Cobb. Wra. Wood 
& Co., New York. 



Autosuggestion 91 

stimulation, enables the individual to perform feats 
of unusual strength (more particularly under sudden 
stress) in response to the emotions engendered, as 
we have already seen, by instinctive reactions. Again 
the stimulation of the sympathetic produces splanch- 
nic vasoconstriction, with an increased systemic 
blood-pressure; there is increased rapidity in the 
heart beat; and an increased quantity of sugar be- 
comes converted from the hepatic glycogen by means 
of the hyper-adrenia, and available for muscular 
energy. Sweating, which takes place on exertion, 
keeps the temperature normal. At this stage the 
individual (a soldier facing danger) is prepared to 
react to his environment." 

This is a highly intelligent response by the involun- 
tary system to the needs of the voluntary. In like 
manner the involuntary system — innervated by the 
sympathetic nerve system — makes appropriate re- 
sponses to the entire range of emotions. But again, 
in some of the compensation efforts we saw an in- 
telligent, and always a purposeful, direction and con- 
trol at an involuntary level. And finally in our case 
of conversion hysteria we have an example of the Un- 
conscious infringing the rights of the Fore-conscious 
and tying up a part of the voluntary muscular sys- 
tem, to serve a definite purpose, in response to a 
group of emotions. We know this occurred during 
sleep, hence without conscious attention. We know 
that it was maintained the next day and through suc- 
ceeding days with very little fatigue, hence it was 



92 Our Unconscious Mind 

still independent of attention; and because it was 
not exhausting we know it must have been directed 
and controlled by that part of the central station 
which operates the involuntary system. 

We are now at the point of our critical inquiry. 

If the Unconscious can modify the activity of any 
part of the body to suit its own ends, and can do 
this without our being sensible of any fatigue, should 
we not gain enormously if we in turn could direct 
the activities of the Unconscious? 

Is there any way by which we can acquire this 
power? 

The first question may be answered in the affirma- 
tive without discussion. Our patient's process was 
pathological, but if we could get control of the same 
mechanisms and direct them to useful ends we could 
work wonders in ourselves. The second question is 
finding its answer in the classes and clinics of Emile 
Coue at Nancy, France, and Charles Baudouin of 
the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute at Geneva, 
Switzerland. Both Coue, the master, and Baudouin, 
originally his pupil, are serious and responsible re- 
search workers, teachers and practitioners, in the 
field of suggestion and autosuggestion. Perhaps I 
should say before going farther that neither sugges- 
tion nor autosuggestion as practised by these psy- 
chologists is to be confused with what is commonly 
spoken of as "hypnotism." The popular use of the 
latter word is usually to describe a state of induced 
sleep in which the "will" of the sleeper is supposed 



Autosuggestion 93 

to be "surrendered" to that of the operator. In 
reality, the only act of will or surrender, at any rate 
the first time one is hypnotized, is the willingness to 
surrender attention. It is the demobilization of atten- 
tion that results in the somnolent state, and unless 
the subject is willing, and follows the operator's 
instructions, there will be no hypnosis. I shall later 
refer in detail to this demobilization of attention. 
My only purpose at the moment is to make clear 
that with "hypnotism" in the popular sense this chap- 
ter will have nothing to do. It is to be concerned 
solely with certain aspects and possibilities of auto- 
(self) suggestion on a practical, scientific basis. 
According to Baudouin (whose book, Suggestion and 
Auto-Suggestion,* a very valuable contribution to 
psychology, is available in an excellent English trans- 
lation by Eden & Cedar Paul), Coue first undertook 
his exploration of the field of hypnosis about 1885-6. 
He conducted a wide research, developed important 
theories of his own, and in 19 10 established at 
Nancy his free clinic for practice and teaching. A 
man of limited means, his work had required real 
personal sacrifice and devotion. His goal, from the 
first, was to perfect a technique which instead of 
enabling the operator to implant suggestion in the 
subject should enable the subject to implant sugges- 
tion in himself. Space is lacking to outline the 
growth of the New Nancy School, but at the time 
of the German invasion of France, Coue was in- 

* Published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 



94 Our Unconscious Mind 

strutting and treating as many as one hundred people 
a day. In his collective sittings he induced a very 
light hypnosis — a sort of reverie state — which he 
found assisted the patients in carrying out his in- 
structions for self treatment thereafter. The point 
of this method seems to me to be the establishment 
of a response-model, the acquirement of which is 
essential to proficiency in any form of mental or 
physical exercise. To become a rapid calculator in 
mental arithmetic, for example, or to become expert 
in playing the piano, requires the implanting of a 
complicated series of response-models which finally 
become so familiar that they recur readily with very 
slight effort of attention, and the latter condition is 
necessary to successful practice of autosuggestion. 

It is a matter of common observation that every- 
one is in greater or less degree suggestible. The 
reaction to suggestion may be either positive or nega- 
tive, either an acceptance or a heightened resistance. 
In this we see a censorship. An epidemic of a cer- 
tain type of crime shows, on the part of the per- 
petrators, imitative response to suggestion implanted 
both by the elaborate descriptive accounts in the 
newspapers, and by the great amount of discussion 
of the outrages, heard on all sides. Primitive affects 
of great intensity are aroused; they break through 
the primary cultural censorship (which is weak in 
the criminally disposed person), accumulate energy 
by being dwelt on in consciousness, and finally become 
sufficiently strong to surmount all fear of punishment 



Autosuggestion 95 

and to control the conduct. The remainder of the 
social group, having a higher cultural censorship, 
reacts to the same suggestion negatively, and dis- 
charges the energy of whatever primitive affects 
have been aroused, in the form of wrath and the 
desire for punishment of the criminals. (In this 
connection, it is interesting to note that one often 
hears the desire for vengeance expressed in terms 
of much greater primitive violence than the crime 
itself actually showed. Psychoanalysts hold that this 
is a method by which the individual is reinforcing 
his own none too strong censorship of his Uncon- 
scious.) Boys who run away "to fight Indians" or 
to become "bold, bad bandits," are usually reacting 
to suggestion from the abominable dime fiction which 
our indifference allows to be printed and sold to them, 
or to an equally pernicious moving-picture film of the 
cheaply sensational sort. 

The two foregoing examples of external sugges- 
tion are chosen to show how strong is the factor 
when primitive affects (wish-feelings) are excited in 
the field of the Unconscious. External suggestion 
plays a great part in the behavior of mobs, audiences, 
the family group, etc., but it is not necessary to 
multiply examples. Of suggestions arising wholly 
within one's self such instances may be taken as the 
following; awaking from sleep at the exact time that 
has been autosuggested on retiring; recurrence, at 
the right time, of memory for an appointment that 
has been made several days before and for which 



96 Our Unconscious Mind 

there is no associative stimulus present at the moment 
of remembering; occurrence of a real, but very con- 
venient ( !) headache which serves as an excuse for 
a child's remaining at home from school; invariable 
defeat in some particular game by an opponent of 
actually inferior skill, with respect to whom one has 
got the fixed idea of "he always beats me." 

The tendency of an idea is to become translated 
into action. I have carefully observed the actions 
of certain men of highly suggestible temperament at 
the billiard table and on the golf course. Their 
worst execution of shots frequently follows their 
loudest execration of their "luck." It is to me 
apparent that an Unconscious mechanism spoils the 
shot deliberately, to give support to their contention 
that they are unlucky or that they "can't do a darn 
thing with that ball to-day." The Unconscious would 
rather prove its point than win the game. I have 
played an entire round of golf with an opponent 
who prefaced the play of each hole with assertions 
that he was "just a chronic duffer" and that he 
"never would learn to play the d — n game anyway, 
if he played a lifetime." This was supplemented by 
further self derogatory remarks after each shot. 
Naturally his nerves and muscles did their best to 
prove that he was right, and his play went from 
bad to worse. I would not be understood as imply- 
ing that if he had boasted of his skill before each 
shot he would thereupon have made the shot per- 
fectly. The use of autosuggestion is not so simple 



Autosuggestion 97 

as that. The boaster is not using effective sugges- 
tion at all ; he is merely compensating for an Uncon- 
scious feeling of inferiority or uncertainty with re- 
spect to the very thing he boasts about. 

Nearly all American men are familiar with the 
game of base-ball. A winning team is nearly always 
a "talking" team. The incessant encouraging and 
confident cries of the players, are known by every- 
one to be by no means a useless expenditure of 
energy. They act as suggestion of the most valuable 
sort and bear fruit in the form of plays which are 
often, in spite of their great difficulty, executed with 
amazing speed and precision. Not infrequently the 
acquisition of a single player, whose exceptional 
ability is supplemented by a great reputation, will 
suffice to inspire a mediocre team so that it becomes 
a pennant contender. In team suggestion there is 
for the individual a dual source. He is receiving 
suggestion from the voices and example of his com- 
rades, and also from himself as he encourages them. 

Whether the source of the suggestion is internal 
or external, whether the origin is within one's self 
or from someone else, Baudouin emphasizes that 
"suggestion proceeds wholly within the subject."* 
This is a most important principle to remember. 
The idea which embodies the suggestion must be 
made one's own idea before the machinery of the 
body will start toward making it real. The machin- 
ery to be used may be the involuntary, the voluntary, 
* Op. cit. 



98 Our Unconscious Mind 

or both, but it will not begin to act on the suggestion 
until the latter has been admitted by the censorship. 
The degree of effectiveness of the suggestion — its 
power to alter one's condition or conduct — will be 
determined partly by one's suggestibility, partly by 
the action of the Censors, partly by the intensity of 
the affect which is aroused, and partly by the thor- 
oughness with which the suggestion is implanted. Wc 
shall later see how these factors point the way to 
correct technique. 

When lecturing I have often been asked to point 
out the difference between what I was describing and 
certain religious doctrines which make use of sugges- 
tion both from without and from within. First of 
all, there is this fundamental difference between 
religion and science : religion wishes a thing to be so, 
while science seeks to find out whether it is so or not. 
The religious propagandist regards the schematism 
of his religion as a finality, the complete and ultimate 
truth. The research scientist regards nothing as 
complete, and nothing as final, but the fact that the 
horizon of knowledge can be steadily widened by 
patient effort. Each is seeking for a stronger power- 
sense to reinforce the human personality. One seeks 
it through schematised faith; the other through 
schematised technique. In terms of useful human 
citizenship, both may often produce like results; and 
the purposes of our comparison do not require con- 
sideration of a life beyond this one. I have no hesi- 
tation in saying that at its present level of develop- 



Autosuggestion 99 

ment it seems to me that humanity certainly needs 
religion; and quite beside any reference to my own 
belief I consider that the admitted failure of the 
churches to keep abreast of the human need of 
spiritual leadership is a great loss to civilization. 
With respect to the general psychology of the Uncon- 
scious, there can be no doubt that a thorough knowl- 
edge of it would add to the usefulness of any pastor 
capable of applying it. With respect to suggestion, 
which, whether recognized as such or not, is the 
basic principle of at least one large sect, I feel very 
sure that the average man or woman would be 
stronger and more self reliant in the long run if 
there were added a thorough study of autosugges- 
tion, frankly accepted and understood for exactly 
what it is, and not tinged with mysticism. In brief, 
there is no disharmony with the concept of God in 
assuming that the individual should both know and 
direct his mental and physical organism on a scien- 
tific basis. 

The first thing to do in examining the mechanisms 
and the possibilities of autosuggestion is to dismiss 
from our minds as completely as possible whatever 
rubbish we may chance to have accumulated there 
from the writings of professional optimists. The 
quack is an ever-present phenomenon, common to all 
climates. The suggestion-quack assures us that we 
have only to think money and we shall be rich, to 
think fame and we shall be famous, to go about 
declaring that everything is all right, and everything 



ioo Our Unconscious Mind 

will be all right. Unfortunately, what he says is not 
true, but he usually gets a considerable following be- 
cause there is a natural human tendency to seek a 
short cut and a side door into the kingdom of success- 
ful living. Knowledge involves study, and thorough 
study requires patient, persistent, hard work. More- 
over, the acquirement of accurate knowledge might 
completely upset the professional optimist's quack 
philosophy. He finds it easier to hurdle such trifling 
obstacles as physiological and psychological facts, 
with the help of such catch phrases as, "he can who 
thinks he can," "right thinking makes right living," 
"a cheerful mind makes a sound body," and the like. 
The serious research worker can spare little time for 
such literature but it often supplies an element of 
real humor. In a single paragraph of one widely 
circulated book of this sort there is the ridiculous 
confusion of autosuggestion with a conflict between 
Unconscious and Fore-conscious based on a psychic 
trauma of childhood. 

Autosuggestion, applied with sound technique, has 
produced, and is producing, highly valuable results. 
It has passed the experimental stage. At Nancy, 
and at the Rousseau Institute in Geneva, it is in daily 
clinical and pedagogical use under responsible scienti- 
fic direction. It has proved its value and its possibili- 
ties of future development. But unless applied in 
the right way it is useless. 

Moreover, there is a tendency to claim for it more 
than is yet justified. The translators of Baudouin's 



Autosuggestion ioi 

book, at the end of their preface remark, ". . . we 
unhesitatingly endorse the author's claim that the 
teachings of the New Nancy School are destined in 
conjunction with the teachings of psychoanalysis, to 
effect a renovation of psychology, medicine and 
pedagogy."* That is rather a large order. We shall 
do well not to leap at too sweeping a conclusion. 
But my own experiments have convinced me that with 
increasing knowledge of how autosuggestion works 
physiologically, and the improvement of technique 
which will naturally follow, it will come into wide 
general use with far-reaching results. I have suc- 
ceeded, for example, in getting measurable effects 
upon certain endocrine glands, upon spasmodic 
muscular contractions, upon functional defects of 
vision, upon the activities of the mind during sleep, 
and upon some other functions both of the involun- 
tary and voluntary system, with increased energy, 
improved general health, and quite remarkable 
change for the better in unstable or depressed mental 
outlook of neurotic type. 

Reference has been made to the fact that, what- 
ever its source, suggestion proceeds within the in- 
dividual himself. It is therefore, finally, autosug- 
gestion. Its working processes must be operative at 
the Unconscious level. From a nerve viewpoint 
this is synonymous with the involuntary system. 
Baudouin points out that, "Suggestion enables us to 
control something within the organism which is in- 

* Op. cit. 



102 Our Unconscious Mind 

dependent of the action of the will, something to 
which we can never hope to issue direct commands."* 
The constantly increasing complexities of its external 
interests have more and more forced mankind to 
adapt itself by increased development of the Fore- 
conscious. This in turn has required greater and 
greater repression of the Unconscious. The human 
being of today is far less closely in touch with his 
natural primitive self than was his ancestor of thou- 
sands of years ago. Consciously, he is more resource- 
ful in ability to think; but Unconsciously, as an 
instinctive animal, he is much less efficient. It is as 
if he had partially lost the use of an inner eye. To 
quote Baudouin again, "We thus acquire (through 
autosuggestion) a privilege which, according to 
Delboeuf, we originally possessed in an earlier stage 
of evolution. In those days the living being was 
fully aware of all that went on within. Owing to 
division of labor, its attention was increasingly 
directed outwards, and the supervision of the inner 
world was left to the subconscious. However this 
may be, suggestion seems to reestablish the super- 
vision, to reconquer a realm lost in the course of 
evolution, and to reconquer it without any loss to 
subsequent gains."* 

How are we to get back in touch with that inner 
self? 

Let us first review briefly what we now know of 
* Op. cit. 



Autosuggestion 103 

its nature. The inner self was primitive-instinctive; 
hence it is the Unconscious, which we have been 
analyzing. We know that it never sleeps, indeed 
that it is partly released from its repressions during 
sleep. Hence, a state resembling sleep will provide 
the easiest approach to it. We know it is a wish- 
field. From its ability to control nerves and muscles 
without our Conscious attention, we know it must be 
in touch with the entire organism of the body, able 
to effect changes over both the involuntary and volun- 
tary systems. 

These things were dealt with both in considering 
our hysteria case and also in discussing compensa- 
tion. But it will not be amiss to note also the follow- 
ing example. I have had the opportunity to analyze 
two cases of sleep-walking. In both, the Uncon- 
scious obviously was not asleep but very much awake 
and able to control nerves and muscles. Moreover, 
the analysis revealed that it was seeking to gratify 
wishes which were under complete suppression from 
consciousness during the patient's waking life. Oddly 
enough both cases showed the sleep-walking was a 
symbolic response to the same pair of wishes; the 
desire to escape from a domineering mother and to 
reach a person to whom the mother-love had been 
strongly transferred. The Unconscious wishes were 
what set the machinery in motion. Since the analysis 
— a period of three years — there has been no recur- 
rence of the nocturnal wandering. The wishes, 
brought forward into consciousness, were fully dealt 



104 ° UR Unconscious Mind 

with at that level, were allowed an adequate emo- 
tional discharge, and effective adjustments were 
made. The important point is the fact which has 
been emphasized before, that in order to get effective 
action there had to be a wish. 

Believing "the doctor can help me" we have yet 
to get to the doctor. The Unconscious certainly has 
power, but how shall we get to the Unconscious? 
And, we might add, how shall we get this non- 
cultural wish-field to serve our Conscious cultural 
wishes (cultural in the sense that they are to sub- 
serve useful achievement ends) ? It is true that some 
of our Conscious wishes are in harmony with the 
primitive autistic desires, but a vast majority of them 
involve sacrifice of the latter. The tendency of the 
Unconscious, we must remember, is to seek gratifica- 
tion with the least possible effort to the organism. 

Let us deal with the second question first. The 
athlete who enters a race can know in advance that 
his involuntary system will make definite efforts to 
respond to the emergency. We need only recall the 
instance of the soldier whose adrenal glands make a 
special effort to prepare his body for fight or flight. 
Now the glands begin their preparation in advance 
of the actual need. They are responding to an emo- 
tion aroused by an idea. Yet there is to be hard 
work involved. We might expect that this would be 
shirked by the Unconscious. The fact that it is not 
is plainly due to a wish, the Unconscious element of 
which is the Ego Maximation sought in the glory of 



Autosuggestion 105 

winning and in demonstrating superiority to others 
in performance; while the Conscious element may be 
loyalty to college or athletic club. The Conscious 
wish alone would not secure the needed effects in the 
involuntary system. There must be a harmonic rela- 
tion with a wish of the primitive Unconscious. 

Returning now to the first question of how the 
Unconscious may be reached, we must not fall into 
the error of assuming that merely to wish consciously 
for something which happens to be agreeable to the 
Unconscious will secure the latter's cooperation. The 
Unconscious is preoccupied with its own affairs. 
The athlete has had to reinforce his wish with long 
and arduous periods of training, with trial races, and 
usually with phantasies, both waking and sleeping, 
of contests and victories. The wish, in his case, is 
so strongly implanted that it forces a right of way. 
It is allowed largely to dominate his whole conduct 
and habit of life. And, from its very nature, its 
relation to his Unconscious is simple and direct. The 
desire to have one's mind work better, or to have 
more efficient endocrines, or to have a piece of men- 
tal work carried forward during sleep, or to be better 
adjusted socially, or to be rid of a tendency to worry 
— in short the desire for any of the great number of 
specific results which can often be secured through 
scientific autosuggestion — is a vastly different matter. 
Much thought may be required to locate the Uncon- 
scious affect which will most readily respond to ihe 
Conscious wish. Yet I am convinced by experiment 



106 Our Unconscious Mind 

that it is important to do this. It may even prove 
necessary to educate the Unconscious — or rather a 
certain aspect of it, the imagination. Dream-form- 
ing and phantasy-forming, the Unconscious may 
fairly be recognized as the seat of imagination. 

Hypnosis has proved that suggestion reaches the 
Unconscious most easily during sleep. One cannot 
very well put one's self to sleep and then implant a 
suggestion formula. Yet the state of sleep must in 
some way be approached. This was the first great 
difficulty which Coue encountered, and which he 
finally surmounted. A certain degree of attention 
was obviously required to repeat, even only mentally, 
a formula of suggestion; and attention is the an- 
tagonist of sleep. Moreover, during a state of 
attention the Unconscious is under strong censorship. 
There is, however, between waking and sleeping, an 
intermediate state in which attention has not been 
entirely surrendered and yet phantasies are forming. 
With many people this lasts for such a brief moment 
before they are fully asleep that they are not even 
aware such an interval exists. It does exist never- 
theless, and with the proper technique it can be pro- 
longed. It was one of Coue's important discoveries 
that autosuggestion could be applied during this state 
with high effectiveness. 

A lesser approximation of the state of sleep is 
found in the mental posture which accompanies 
reverie. There is partial detachment from the outer 
world, from the pressing realities of life, and sur- 



Autosuggestion 107 

render to the imaginative function of the Uncon- 
scious. In both of the foregoing mental states the 
condition is characterized by Baudouin as an "out- 
cropping" of the Unconscious. "As soon as the 
attention is relaxed it has become possible for all 
our inner life to flow together, to collect itself within 
us."* Unconscious, Fore-conscious, and Conscious, 
are able to interweave as it were. The acuteness of 
both Censors is lowered. For the sake of a graphic 
illustration we may liken the condition to that of a 
small river which is used for power While the mill 
is working, the water is flowing around the dam 
through the power conduit, but when the mill-gate 
is partially closed the water rises and flows over the 
edge of the dam. The continuity of the stream is 
not affected, but there is a change in the manner of 
continuity. The flow over the dam is at lower ten- 
sion and dispersed over a wider area. This illustra- 
tion, unfortunately, does not supply the other factor 
— the ability of the water below the dam to com- 
municate in retrograde with that above — but this 
missing factor may be in part supplied if we remem- 
ber that a part of the water in the conduit, no longer 
required to flow through the mill, may now blend 
again with the water behind the dam. 

To distinguish it from mere reverie, I shall use 
the term "intermediate state" in referring to the con- 
dition just before attention is completely surrendered 
in sound sleep. In my experience this is the state to 

* Op. cit. 



108 Our Unconscious Mind 

aim at in the practice of autosuggestion. It is diffi- 
cult to maintain, but with right instruction and earnest 
practice the difficulties can be overcome. 

Having access to the Unconscious, and knowing 
that suggestion, to be effective, should be in line with 
at least one affect of the Unconscious wish-field, we 
have now to consider the form which autosuggestion 
must take. A strong wish follows, and is associated 
with, a strong emotion. The emotion is involuntary 
and spontaneous; i.e., it arises independently of any 
conscious will. We cannot will ourselves to love, 
to hate, to be afraid. As a matter of fact, the harder 
we will ourselves to love the more definitely we shall 
not love. There is in reality a conflict of two ideas; 
"I love," and " I do not love." Of these the true 
one is always the idea which is actually in force and 
dominating the conduct. It is, in a sense, the actually 
operative suggestion. It is in harmony with the 
present Unconscious wishes. Attempting to counter- 
suggest it, does not alter the controlling wish; the 
only result is to strengthen the latter by adding to 
it the force of attention. 

Another view of this reversal of effect may be 
seen in the following. We dislike pain; a decayed 
tooth may become very painful; we wish the aching 
would cease; but the harder we wish it would stop 
the more it seems to ache. It has received the force 
of concentrated awareness — attention. Again, some- 
thing has slipped from consciousness which we wish 
to recall. The harder we try, the more we concen- 



Autosuggestion 109 

trate the voluntary attention, the more likely it is 
that we shall not succeed. The energy of attention is 
steadily reinforcing the fact that the thing is for- 
gotten. It is like pulling on the end of a strap, the 
other end of which is held in the jaws of a bulldog. 
The harder we pull the more tightly he grips. It is 
only when we relax that he also relaxes. Often, of 
course, the forgotten thing is repressed by the censor- 
ship because of some Unconscious association, but 
the most thorough experimentation fails to show that 
this is always true. And again, we may see the re- 
versal of effect at work in a child walking on a rail. 
Every slight loss of balance brings a struggle entirely 
disproportionate to the effect actually needed, and, 
more often than not, the struggle ends in a failure. 
Attention is focussed on the disturbed equilibrium, 
and the latter tends to perpetuate itself. We may 
see here, besides the reversed effect, the great pos- 
sibilities inherent in the fact that an idea tends toward 
realization. A confident and unimpeded idea of 
equilibrium, at the outset, would be of great service 
to the child, since it would be the controlling sug- 
gestion. 

But to return to the consideration of reversed 
effect: 

Baudouin speaks of it as "the law of reversed 
effort" and attributes to Coue the formulation of the 
law. "The frequency of spontaneous suggestions," 
he says, "above all, of bad ones, shows us that the 
first task of reflective suggestion must be to neutral- 



1 10 Our Unconscious Mind 

ize these noxious suggestions, to struggle against 
suggestions that are already in operation. Yet, now 
when we concentrate voluntary attention upon the 
good idea which we are to substitute for the bad 
idea, when we devote all our energies to the substi- 
tution, what will happen? A reversal of effort, noth- 
ing more. The harder we try to think the good 
idea, the more violent will be the assaults of the 
bad idea." 

Again he remarks, "Voluntary effort essentially 
presupposes the idea of a resistance to be overcome. 
It comprises both action and reaction. The two 
notions are simultaneously present at the moment of 
the effort. If then (and this is a matter of the first 
importance), I concentrate voluntary attention on 
an idea, which implies my making an effort, I am 
simultaneously conscious of an action towards the 
idea, and of a resistance in consequence of which the 
idea continually tends to escape me, so that I must 
unceasingly recall my wandering attention. . . . 

"In these circumstances, we do not think a single 
idea, but two conflicting ideas. And if our state of 
consciousness is sufficiently reinforced by attention, 
for the origination of a suggestion to be possible, it 
is not a single suggestion that will result, but there 
will be two conflicting suggestions which will neutral- 
ize one another more or less perfectly. The yield, 
therefore, will be far less copious than in the case 
of spontaneous suggestion. And if it should unfor- 
tunately happen that the sentiment of effort and re- 



Autosuggestion i i i 

sistance predominates, we shall probably arrive at 
the negative result, the reverse of that which we 
desire, a result whose dimensions will be proportional 
to the efforts we have made to avoid it."* 

I have quoted Baudouin and Coue on the "law of 
reversed effort," because my own analytical work, 
as well as persistent experiment in autosuggestion, 
has convinced me that nothing else can so defeat the 
suggestive purpose as the approach through conscious 
will and voluntary effort. 

But reason and experiment add yet another point. 
Effective suggestion requires partial control of the 
involuntary system of the body. This control is 
vested in the Unconscious. The Unconscious is an 
affect-field, and there is scarcely a moment from 
birth to death when one or another of its affects is 
not energized. Now a suggestion, to get into action, 
has got to stimulate an affect which is strong enough 
to overcome any other then present, and thus pre- 
empt the right of way. The affect necessary to make 
any given suggestion become dynamic must supervene 
above all others and appropriate sufficient energy to 
dominate the conduct of the Unconscious. 

I maintain that this is a law as certain and as basic 
as the law of reversed effort. It may be called u the 
law of dominant affect," and it is here advanced for 
such critical examination as psychologists may wish 
to give it. 

* Op. cit. 



ii2 Our Unconscious Mind 

We are now in a position to construct the com- 
plete process needed for the most effective auto- 
suggestion : 

First: We need to acquire a mental posture as 
nearly as possible approaching the intermediate state 
between waking and sleeping. This must begin with 
thorough relaxation both of the voluntary muscles 
and of attentive, outwardly directed thought. It is 
a condition which is by no means easily attained, 
and for the average person requires careful instruc- 
tion and a great deal of practice. At first the pupil 
usually finds a quiet place absolutely essential. The 
condition occurs, of course, spontaneously every night 
and morning when going to sleep and on awakening, 
but it lasts only for a very brief interval, often not 
longer than a minute or less. The interval is at 
first very difficult to observe in one's self, because 
one is in the habit of using so much attention for 
observing anything, that the mere direction of at- 
tention to the state is sufficient to destroy it instantly. 
My own first experiments after retiring at night only 
resulted in disturbing sleep, and for a long time I 
was quite unable to think of observing in the morn- 
ing until I was fully awake. If we remember, how- 
ever, that the state of reverie is a similar condition, 
except that there is less surrender of attention, we 
shall see that the practice of deliberate reflective 
reverie — the body first being thoroughly relaxed and 
the eyes closed, — is likely to prove of great service 
in acquiring the needed attitude of mind. A few 



Autosuggestion 113 

minutes undisturbed, preferably lying down, two or 
three times a day, will suffice in a short time to learn 
the trick of directed reverie, a reverie in which the 
attention is turned inward with a pre-determined 
line of thought. This will provide a useful approach 
to the more effective intermediate state. 

I do not propose to give here even an outline of 
the technique or directions necessary for the prac- 
tice of autosuggestion. At a later date I hope to 
present them in a separate volume, but at present 
I do not consider them sufficiently perfected to insure 
satisfactory results without personal instruction. 
We are concerned here solely with the mechanisms, 
as necessary to our understanding the activities of 
the human Unconscious. 

Second: Whether in the state of reverie or in the 
intermediate state, there must be a management of 
the attention which will keep it at a low enough 
tension not to disturb the mental posture that has 
been acquired, and at the same time make possible 
the direction of the flow of thought in a definite sug- 
gestion. This also is a most difficult knack to ac- 
quire. It is the use of attention in a peculiarly mild, 
yet directed manner, to which we are quite unaccus- 
tomed. Baudouin devotes much space to a careful 
and detailed discussion of it. The tendency of at- 
tention in the ordinary state of reverie — in the child 
we should simply call this state "day dreaming" — 
is to wander over a variety of subjects or over many 
features of the same subject. Obviously this will 



ii4 ° UR Unconscious Mind 

not serve for implanting a definite formula of sug- 
gestion. 

I have found it useful to canvass thoroughly, in 
advance, while in an entirely attentive state, the situ- 
ation which one wishes to deal with, and to devise 
a formula which may be committed to memory. 
Then, when one is ready to relax, the formula is on 
tap, so to speak, and can be called upon without 
effort. The formula must state the desired result 
not as a fact but as a thing in process of accomplish- 
ment. However credulous others may be with 
regard to one's statements, there is nothing surer 
than that one's own Unconscious cannot be tricked 
by a false assertion from the Conscious. If one is 
hungry, there can at best be nothing more than a 
temporary effect from asserting that one is not 
hungry. If remedial suggestion is to be employed 
to correct undue fatigability of the muscles due to 
insufficient thyroid secretion, there will be little value 
in using a formula which merely states that the 
fatigue is not a fact. The deficient thyroid will not 
be corrected. (For that matter, in such a case I 
should emphatically advise that the suggestion follow 
and supplement actual treatment of the thyroid by 
a competent physician.) Again, if the general out- 
look on life is a discouraged one, little benefit may 
be expected from a formula which simply denies the 
habitual state of mind. The desired condition must 
be stated as beginning to take place. This is a direct 
appeal to the imagination. If I say when I lie down, 



Autosuggestion i i 5 

"Now all my voluntary muscles are relaxed," I am 
instantly confronted by the fact that it is not so. 
Attention is split between two opposed things. But 
if I say, "Now my voluntary muscles are relaxing" 
I have denied nothing, and I have set imagination 
at work naturally, exactly as it worked during child- 
hood. 

With the formula rightly prepared, and a relaxed 
posture assumed, the attention is then demobilized 
from the outer world and allowed to mobilize 
around the idea embodied in the formula. In this 
latter process, four pupils report that the mere repe- 
tition of the formula, slowly, in the very lightest 
whisper, has sufficed to hold their attention upon the 
idea for several minutes without disturbing the 
dreamy intermediate state. 

Third: There must be a goal selected which is 
practical and which will harmonize with a basic wish 
of the Unconscious. A girl with black hair need 
not expect that autosuggestion will change it to red. 
That is not practical. Nor is there any point in 
using a suggestion which merely aims at an arbitrary 
and unstudied change in condition or function of 
body or mind, for such a change might defeat a 
fixed striving of the Unconscious — and it certainly 
will not take place. On the other hand we need 
only recall our study of the control of the "will" 
to realize that in Ego Maximation there is a group 
of Unconscious affects at the achievement level which 
may be called upon as most powerful allies. If, as 



n6 Our Unconscious Mind 

pointed out by Baudouin in his outline of "the law 
of auxiliary emotion," a strong emotion is called into 
play, so much the better. A young woman who 
wishes to use suggestion to get rid of an annoying 
skin eruption of neurotic origin, has in the wish for 
beauty a strong Ego Maximation affect to rely on 
as her ally; but, if she happen to be in love, there 
is still an added affect — the wish to be beautiful for 
her lover — which, incidentally, may also be of the 
Ego Maximation group. 

Fourth: There must be regularity and persist- 
ence. I have stressed the fact that even with in- 
struction and good technique, much practice is re- 
quired to become proficient. It is well also to repeat 
a statement made in connection with the "law of 
dominant affect," which was that, "There is scarcely 
a moment from birth to death when one or another 
of its (the Unconscious) affects is not energized. 
Now a suggestion, to get into action, has got to 
stimulate an affect which is strong enough to over- 
come any other then present, and thus pre-empt the 
right of way." We may readily see that to get a 
progressive and continuous result this must be made 
to happen repeatedly. The affect stimulated by the 
suggestion cannot be expected to hold the right of 
way, all the time, to the exclusion of everything 
else. It must be re-stimulated, just as medicine must 
be taken at regular intervals, often over a long 
period of time. 

It is in this connection that there is distinct value 



Autosuggestion 117 

hi cultivating a habit of mental attitude and conscious 
action which squares with the suggestion. By the 
mechanism of association it tends to reinforce the 
suggestion stimulus. But using habitual voluntary 
suggestion in this manner, as an auxiliary, is a far 
different thing from attempting to implant sugges- 
tion by an act of will. Another very valuable aux- 
iliary will be found in much reflective thought about 
the goal at which the suggestion is aimed. Imagi- 
nation should be directed to play as much as possible 
upon the benefits which will be actually realized 
when the goal is attained. Imagination, it must be 
remembered, springs from the Unconscious, and so 
long as we do not content ourselves with imagining 
the goal, but use imagination as a stimulus to an 
already begun, active advance toward the goal, we 
are turning to account a greater power within us 
than most of us realize. I have found it valuable, 
also, invariably to conclude such imaginative reflec- 
tion with the actual formula used in the suggestion. 
A habit-association is thereby formed between the 
words of the formula and the idea of the goal. This 
cultivation of the imagination along definite achieve- 
ment lines harmonizes with the ends indicated in 
the chapter on control and operation of the will. 

No consideration, even in outline, of the mechan- 
isms of autosuggestion can be complete without ref- 
erence to the possible presence of conflicts; such, to 
use an extreme example, as that of our hysteria 
patient. In that case, it is possible that by deep 



u8 Our Unconscious Mind 

hypnosis an operator could have implanted a sug- 
gestion strongly enough to have resulted in releasing 
the arm. But the conflict which was the underlying 
cause of the trouble would neither have been re- 
solved nor relieved, and the symptom might either 
have soon returned or have been replaced by an- 
other even more serious. In all cases at the Rous- 
seau Institute where there is indication of serious 
psychic conflict, it is the practice to resort to psycho- 
analysis and thus clear up the difficulty before teach- 
ing suggestion. Baudouin reports that this method 
gives admirable results. Suggestion, implanted in 
an Unconscious which is in violent conflict with the 
Foreconscious, is a dangerous shot in the dark, with 
an even chance that the result will be bad instead 
of good. 

Practical applications of autosuggestion are too 
numerous and inclusive to admit of reviewing more 
than a few of the most important. Physical dis- 
orders of many sorts have been relieved or cured, 
and the accumulated experience, both at Nancy and 
at Geneva, proves that, rightly used, suggestion may 
be made an important and valuable ally of the phy- 
sician. But in neither of these schools is the em- 
phasis being put on therapeutics. Indeed Baudouin 
says specifically, "Suggestive practice . . . must not 
be looked upon as a chapter of medicine, any more 
than suggestion must be regarded as a special case 
of will. The two belong to distinct categories. 
Suggestive practice is not, properly speaking, a 



Autosuggestion 119 

therapeutic method. With the work of the New 
Nancy School it passes from the medical to the peda- 
gogical sphere. It does not so much consist of a 
descriptive science as of an education or re-education 
of certain mental aptitudes and habits which human 
beings have been tending more and more to lose."* 

It seems to me that this concept, the re-education 
of the Unconscious, embodies the important future 
of the movement. If the Conscious element of the 
central station can acquire a working rapport with 
that portion which is in control of the involuntary 
system, we may expect results of tremendous im- 
portance to the individual. It will be possible, on 
the one hand, to bring the entire physical status more 
in line with the achievement goals. On the other 
hand it will be possible to raise the purposive affect- 
level of the Unconscious so that its primitive energy 
will be less dissipated in autistic pleasure wishes. 
Once in actual working alliance the Conscious can 
educate the Unconscious, while the latter serves the 
Conscious purposes. This, to my mind, opens a 
channel of evolutionary development which has in- 
calculable value. 

Because of the inter-relation of personal psy- 
chology with the activities of the endocrine glands, 
I have directed a number of my experiments at ef- 
fecting specific improvement in the functioning of 
one or more of these organs. The results have been 
for the most part positive, and in two instances quite 

* Op. cit. 



i2o Our Unconscious Mind 

remarkable. Experiments directed at improving the 
quality and increasing the quantity of brain-work 
were attended with interesting and highly satisfac- 
tory response. In part these were aimed only at 
generally higher mental efficiency, but in part also 
they included such specific suggestions as setting the 
Unconscious at work on a definite creative compo- 
sition during the night's sleep. In one of the latter 
instances, when I, myself, was the subject of the 
autosuggestion, I awoke at five A.M. after several 
hours of quiet sleep, to find sentences forming in 
consciousness which were so in line with what I 
sought that I arose and began writing. The ma- 
terial came rapidly, without pause, for about an 
hour, then the train of thought ceased as evenly and 
spontaneously as it had begun. The treatment of 
the subject was far better than anything I had been 
able to do with it in many days of conscious effort. 
Many writers, of course, get similar results without 
knowledge of the method by which they have been 
produced. In such cases, the autosuggestion is given 
spontaneously, growing out of preoccupation with 
the subject and an intense wish for its successful 
handling; but the advantage of being able to set 
the mechanism in motion at will is obvious. More- 
over, we must not forget that work performed by 
the Unconscious is without perceptible fatigue. This 
in itself is a tremendous gain. In setting the Un- 
conscious at work at night, I have found it useful, 
before retiring, briefly to review the data in con- 



Autosuggestion 121 

sciousness, with no efort whatever toward construc- 
tion. A simple suggestion formula is then used as 
sleep approaches. 

Using autosuggestion to overcome strongly 
grooved habits seems to require steady and long- 
continued persistence. Success in such cases comes 
more readily when a hetero-suggestion (suggestion 
implanted by someone else) is given first, during 
very light hypnosis. Autosuggestion used regularly 
thereafter serves as a continuous reinforcing process. 
In no point of suggestive practice is the law of 
dominant affect more important than in overcoming 
a long-prevalent habit. One must search out an 
affect of the Ego Maximation group which has great 
inherent energy capacity, and which will be gratified 
by discontinuing the habit; dwell on it with the 
imagination, excite it at every possible opportunity, 
and associate with it always the goal of freedom 
from the habit. It amounts finally to replacing the 
autistic gratification of the habit with a greater 
pleasure in Ego Maximation on an achievement 
basis. And the autistic gratification will not lightly 
be surrendered. 

The mechanisms of suggestion can be used in rest- 
ing both body and brain. "A good way," remarks 
Baudouin, "of bringing about . . . relaxation of 
the mind is to immobilize the body, or, to speak 
more strictly, to relax the muscles, for muscular 
relaxation seems to generalize itself and to promote 
the relaxation of the muscles (chiefly optic) of at- 



i22 Our Unconscious Mind 

tention." And again, "In place of seeking repose 
in distraction, which rests the attention by changing 
its object, let us seek repose in relaxation, in which 
the attention no longer tries to fix itself on any- 
thing."* Both knowledge of the primitive nature of 
the Unconscious, and knowledge of the possibilities 
of directed imagination, give us additional hints as 
to methods of resting the brain. The Conscious and 
Fore-conscious, that have been occupied all day long 
with a distressing business problem, will not readily 
relax. We may secure valuable assistance from the 
phonograph and a dance record in which the rythm 
is either sensuous or stirringly primitive. "Jazz" 
music did not find an instant acceptance among busy 
Americans without a good psychological reason. It 
forcibly switches attention from the wearied Con- 
scious to the unwearying, primitive, imaginative Un- 
conscious. Similarly, by directed imagination, the 
ideas of stress and worry may be replaced by relaxed 
reverie, in which the affects of the Unconscious have 
full play. At such times the imagination should be 
directed at future goals and should be encouraged 
to dwell on the benefits and pleasures which will 
come with attainment. 

Finally, we come to the question of age; and it is 
high time that Americans, particularly American 
business men, should recast their habit of thought 
on this subject and begin to apply the new light 
furnished by the psychology of suggestion. From 
*Op. cit. 



Autosuggestion 123 

the time a child is born we begin measuring its life. 
By the time it is two years old we have started ob- 
serving its birthdays and teaching it our slavery to 
the calendar. By the time it is five years old, we 
have let it sense in countless ways our own sense of 
age difference and distinctions. We cannot avoid 
doing this because we ourselves are so filled with 
our notions of the tremendous significance of years 
that it is impossible to live with us and not absorb 
the same ideas. Time, with the assistance of clock 
and calendar, becomes a measure of life, and we 
insist that the child shall early learn our mental at- 
titude of, "Time flies," which is supplemented by 
"Time and tide wait for no man." I do not mean 
necessarily that we actually present these maxims for 
the child's guidance — although it is often done — but 
that the effect of our conduct with respect to time and 
age has that unescapable implication. We have life 
segmented, into childhood, the "teens," young man- 
hood or young womanhood, maturity, prime of life, 
middle age, elderly, old, and aged. We have the 
years of each period so stepped off in our minds that 
the mention of any one of those segments instantly 
brings to mind an idea of an approximate year. 
Furthermore, we have endowed each segment with 
ideas of certain appearance and qualities. Our 
popular literature rarely describes a character in 
any other than these accepted and stereotyped at- 
tributes allocated to the various segments. If the 
year "thirty," or "forty," or "fifty," or "sixty," or 



124 Our Unconscious Mind 

"seventy," or "eighty," is used as a stimulus word 
it will associate in our minds a definitive chain of 
qualities and physical characteristics. Our sporting 
writers delight in referring to a baseball pitcher of 
thirty-seven or thirty-eight in some such jocular 
terms as "venerable" or "the old man." Countless 
women look forward with dread to the thirtieth 
birthday, and regard the fortieth with something 
akin to despair. Grayness of hair calls up to most 
of us an idea of mental and physical decline. Now 
these fixed ideas have an inevitable sequence in de- 
termining our view of what people are like at vari- 
ous ages and what they are able to do; and in turn 
our ideas are reflected in those of the child. If we 
speak of youth with envy, and of old age with de- 
preciation and pity, indeed even if our speech is 
guarded and these are only our habits of mind, we 
may be well assured that the child will soon see life 
through our eyes and will come to regard forty- 
five as the beginning of retirement. I well remember 
the patronizing and indulgent attitude of a colle- 
giate student-body watching a baseball game in 
which members of the faculty formed one of the 
teams. Moreover, this attitude was reflected in that 
of the members of the faculty team themselves. 
Speaking analytically, they regarded themselves as 
physically inferior because of greater age. For the 
purposes of the game they certainly were; but as 
organisms adjusted to habitual environment of daily 
life those of them who had taken proper care of 



Autosuggestion 125 

their bodies were actually more efficient' both phys- 
ically and mentally than the youths they were playing 
against. The ability to stand an athletic strain is 
no test of efficiency except for an athlete. 

Our emphasis on athletics has its very great value 
in stimulating, through Ego Maximation, the effort 
to build fine bodies; but our emphasis on winning, 
on the ability to beat somebody else, is in the long 
run destructive, since it powerfully implants the sug- 
gestion both that failure to win means inferiority, 
and that with the decline of ability to win games 
there is decline in the whole power of the individual. 

I have been particularly interested in observing 
the mental attitude of boys and girls from fifteen 
to eighteen, when in physical competition with their 
parents or others of like age. The age factor is 
nearly always present in the minds of both, as is 
evidenced by such ideas as "youth will tell," "I'm 
not as young as I used to be," "the young men 
against the old," "mother is a good sport but she 
can't move fast enough," "what the old man needs 
is pep," "I've seen the time when I could move as 
fast as you youngsters," etc. The instance is com- 
paratively rare when the game is merely a happy 
cooperative exercise between two human beings who 
are in spirit absolute equals, without reference to 
age or specialized ability. 

Somewhere about the period from 1904 to 1906, 
there started in American business a "youth cult" 
that has caused incalculable loss in money, and 1 



126 Our Unconscious Mind 

scarcely less tragedy in waste of human values than 
even the Great War. Only within the last four or 
five years have business executives generally begun 
to realize the enormous aggregate cost of scrapping 
trained workers because of advancing years, and 
training new ones to take their places. Sociologists 
much earlier realized the consequences to society if 
the subordinate of forty-five or fifty is to be con- 
sidered too old for efficient work in business. It is 
immaterial now to consider in what the "youth cult" 
had its origin, or whether the famous misquoted 
half-jest of Dr. Osier — magnified by popular jour- 
nalism into a national suggestion of tremendous de- 
structiveness — was its chief reinforcement. We 
have now to consider the consequences. 

Suppose that a well-trained, experienced, able, 
highly competent office manager of the age of forty- 
six is thrown out of employment for some reason 
which has nothing to do with his efficiency. He 
turns to the classified columns of the daily papers 
and discovers that every advertisement for an office 
manager contains a clause which bars anyone over 
thirty-five (most of them will make the age limit 
thirty) . Wherever he goes he knows that there is 
a dreaded question waiting to be asked. "How old 
are you?" — and regardless of his ability there will 
be the stereotyped, "We want a man not over so- 
and-so, a young man." Eventually he may find a 
position. I have often wondered just what would 
happen if the forty-six-year-old applicant were to 



Autosuggestion 127 

remark to the business owner who turns him down, 
"But you, sir, appear to be approaching sixty. If 
you want only young men in the business, if only the 
young are efficient, why don't you discharge your- 
self?" 

Any business which is run on the "youth cult" 
basis is preparing every man or woman who enters 
its service for a dead-line of decline, discharge and 
decay; and to these three d's may too often be added 
a fourth — despair. Now an individual who lives 
in the fixed expectation of decline at a certain period 
of life, is very sure to decline at that period. The 
expectation may be wholly unconscious, but it is all 
the more deadly in its suggestive power. 

The vicious circle begins in childhood. Let us, 
for the moment, consider that we are the children. 
We are no sooner getting adjusted to the strange 
world in which we find ourselves than the mature 
people in our environment begin preparing us to 
expect decline and futility as the portion of a con- 
siderable measure of life. We are never allowed 
to regard the people of the world as essentially 
human equals, irrespective of age. Throughout our 
childhood, adolescence, and indeed throughout the 
whole of life, our Unconscious is being hag-ridden 
by calendars, anniversaries, and the irrevocability of 
the years. The idea of life as a constantly rising 
curve of human progress and service is seldom more 
than hinted at as an idealist dream — in spite of the 
Edisons, Abbots, Fords, Eliots, Tafts, Balfours, 



128 Our Unconscious Mind 

Clemenceaus, Joffres, Fochs, Schwabs, Bernhardts, 
Shaws, Catts, Tarbells, Gladstones, Garys, Asquiths, 
Hugheses, and the thousands upon thousands of 
others, whose names would fill a library, serving as 
examples to prove the folly of the "decline" notion. 
Their lives represent rising curves of vision, poise 
and service. They too had to deal with the inces- 
santly implanted suggestion of age-decline, but the 
vigor and vitality of their achievement striving 
proved a counter-suggestion of sufficient power to 
dominate the organism. 

Certain comparative observations will be of value 
in suggesting corrective measures. 

i. Any religion which teaches that life here is of 
little importance, except as a preparation for death, 
is implanting destructive suggestion, so far as earthly 
efficiency is concerned. If "I am but a pilgrim here; 
heaven is my home," why trouble about developing 
myself as a part of the human race? Why not at- 
tend to my devotions — and wish for an early death? 

2. The incessant measuring of time, the "how 
time flies," the birthdays (which with the superstition 
of "an allotted span of life" become almost equally 
death-days), may well be compared with the un- 
measured life of the Indian, the Paumotuan or the 
Marquesan, to whom the number of years means 
nothing. 

3. The "youth cult" glorifies and enormously 
over-values the power of youth. Conversely, it be- 
littles experience and implies contempt for advanced 



Autosuggestion 129 

maturity. Let us look about us with honest eyes 
and note the result. In no other civilized nation of 
the world is there such disregard of the elder by the 
younger as in America. In Italy, France, Germany, 
Switzerland, Scotland, England, Ireland, one sees 
the deepest respect for the wisdom and poise of ex- 
perience. The young men are no less respectful than 
the children. They show a natural and intelligent 
appreciation for what the older man or woman has 
learned of life. We in America, as early as twenty- 
one or twenty-two, begin to suspect that we know 
considerably more than "The Old Man"; by twenty- 
five we are perfectly sure of it; and by thirty we are 
beginning to make allowances for him on account 
of his age. Do not let us forget that the fault is 
that of "The Old Man" himself. We are merely 
reacting to two lines of suggestion which he im- 
planted. During our childhood, his attitude, the 
attitude of his friends, and the educational system 
which he permitted, determined our psychology. 
When we reached the working age, we found him 
and his friends scrapping their older employees, 
male or female, at the omniscient dictum of a shell- 
spectacled "efficiency graduate" whose mature busi- 
ness experience perhaps compassed as much as two 
years. 

4. The educational system which makes the 
teacher an underpaid economic inferior, fails to 
command from parents the respect which the teach- 
ing profession should have. The pupil spending a 



130 Our Unconscious Mind 

considerable part of his life in contact with teachers, 
who are not properly respected by parents, cannot 
avoid the unconscious suggestion that nearly all 
elders may probably be slighted. I have collected 
from many children up to the age of sixteen their 
reaction to their teachers. Only twenty-two per cent 
viewed their teachers with proper respect. Now the 
teacher is to the child as the man of fifty or sixty 
is to the youth just entering business. The habit of 
regarding the older person, or teacher, as an inferior 
to be tolerated, pitied, or covertly despised, is deeply 
implanted suggestion. We are all more or less to 
blame for the condition; but where the fault lies is 
immaterial. Our concern should be to change the 
conditions. 

The point is obvious that we have allowed the 
development of destructive suggestion to surround 
us. Constructively we should stop measuring our 
lives and the lives of our children. Age, as a means 
of measurement, is of no importance whatever. A 
woman on her thirtieth birthday is neither less at- 
tractive, nor less valuable, than on her twenty-ninth, 
unless she and the others around her have loaded 
the beginning of the fourth decade with foreboding 
and fear. We should make the spirit of ever-broad- 
ening human service the very core of our religion. 
We should make every man in our business under- 
stand that earnest, faithful service means a life job; 
and by taking away the fear we shall take away 
worry — the chief cause of decline. We should make 



Autosuggestion 131 

teaching an amply paid and highly honored profes- 
sion; and we should insist that every teacher be 
trained in the psychology of suggestion. 

Suggestion, as before emphasized, whether aris- 
ing from others or in our own minds, works always 
within us. Let us remember this warning of Bau- 
douin's — the fruit of broad, daily clinical experience : 
"Autosuggestion can operate upon us with incalcul- 
able power. Now if we permit this force to work 
spontaneously, in default of rational guidance, dis- 
astrous consequences may ensue, and do in fact often 
ensue."* It is for us to see that the suggestions 
within ourselves, as well as those which surround 
our children and our fellow workers, are not nega- 
tive and destructive, but always positive and forward- 
looking. 



* Op. cit. 



CHAPTER VI 

APPLICATION TO EVERDAY LIFE 

\\ 7E have a right to expect from any science that 
* * it shall pay its way, and until it has done this, 
or at least has shown promise of doing it in the 
future, we are justified in questioning its right to 
any prominent place in our educational system. The 
assumed purpose of the study of psychology is not 
only to provide us with better understanding of our- 
selves and of others, but to make the actual living 
of life an easier matter. It would not seem unrea- 
sonable to expect that a graduate in the study of 
mind science should recognize a neurosis when he 
meets one. He might also be expected to have an 
intelligent understanding of the unconscious conflicts 
of a child; of the solutions for the problems of ado- 
lescence; of the polyphase strivings of a mother 
possessed by the ambivalent urge to develop her 
own life, yet immolate it in the lives of her children; 
of the highly involved suppressions and adjustments 
that a young woman must make to succeed in busi- 
ness; of such compensation strivings as those of the 
social and political radical; of the sublimation prob- 
lem of the unmated woman; and of the effects of 
destructive suggestion upon the endocrine system. 

132 



Application to Everyday Life 133 

Now the point about the psychology of the Un- 
conscious is that it does function at exactly this 
level of direct application to the problem of living. 
It has nothing to do with philosophy or ethics. It 
is an experimental and descriptive science. Based 
soundly on the physiology of the autonomic system, 
the involuntary and voluntary muscular systems, and 
the endocrine chemistry, it proceeds by adequately 
checked experiment to a working understanding of 
the deepest riddles of human conduct, and of how 
effectively to change the conduct toward steady bet- 
terment, with the least possible difficulty and hin- 
drance. In the preceding chapters, we have made a 
simple analysis of the human energy stream in its 
passage through the two fields of affects or wish- 
feelings, Unconscious and Fore-conscious, which are 
present in every individual. We have seen that the 
affects (wish-feelings) of the two fields are opposed 
to each other and that only by educating the imagi- 
nation can they be brought into cooperative harmony 
and even then only to a limited extent. We have 
examined enough of the mechanisms, both voluntary 
and involuntary, of the mental and physical appa- 
ratus, to give us a working understanding of our own 
conduct and of that of others. If we apply our 
understanding of these mechanisms to the life of 
the family, school, business, or social group, it is 
impossible that there should not be resulting changes, 
and these will be of positive and progressive benefit. 
I propose in this, and the two sections which follow, 



134 UR Unconscious Mind 

to outline in considerable detail the applications 
which are within the power of any intelligent person. 

THE INFANT 

I Have previously referred to a new-born child as 
essentially a primitive being. In spite of a natural 
tendency on the part of most mothers to recoil from 
such an idea, we shall nevertheless do well not to 
evade this concept, or to qualify it to any marked 
extent. A child of the most highly cultured parents, 
if taken from them at the age of three months, and 
brought up as the foster child of savage parents 
on an uncivilized Polynesian island of the South 
Seas will grow up a Polynesian Islander in morals, 
manners, and habits of thought. It is possible that 
he may show a greater capacity for acquiring and 
applying knowledge, and it is highly probable that 
he will be slightly inferior to the other islanders in 
resourcefulness and adjustment to environment as an 
animal. In other words, he will show the loss of 
some of the keenness of instinct, but otherwise his 
psychology will be mainly that of the group with 
which he is brought up. He may be influenced to 
some extent by the behavior of the savage children, 
if they show that they regard him as different from 
themselves. They may look upon him as an in- 
ferior, in which case he will develop some sort of 
compensation striving, or they may look upon him 
as a superior, which in turn will lead to various 
postural adjustments of his ego. 



Application to Everyday Life 135 

Similarly, if a baby from an uncivilized Poly- 
nesian group be adopted into and brought up by a 
white family, his psychology, except for the per- 
sistence of keener animal instincts, will be white. 
The same has been found true of transplantation 
between Caucasian and Red Indian. Many obser- 
vations of the transplantation of Gikuyu babies of 
British East Africa, to Caucasian family influence, 
have shown that between these two races there is 
a wider differentiation of instincts, but when entirely 
removed from their tribal surroundings Gikuyu chil- 
dren develop a psychology so closely akin to that 
of the whites, that if the color of their skins could 
be changed, their savage origin would rarely be 
guessed. 

A baby, then, is at the outset a wholly instinctive 
animal, with very little inherent tendency toward 
anything but getting its wishes. It appears to be the 
fond impression of most mothers that their babies 
soon come to know them, both by sight and feeling, 
and I believe the average mother will insist that she 
"could tell her own baby among a million." Re- 
luctant as we may be to disturb so natural a senti- 
ment, the facts are that observations made in chil- 
dren's hospitals show not only that a baby of six 
weeks reacts toward any number of women exactly 
as toward its mother, if given a chance, but that 
mothers often cannot tell their own tiny infants 
from others of the same sex if hair and eyes are 
similar. 



136 Our Unconscious Mind 

Now assuming that a new baby has arrived in the 
home, we should not forget that, from the hour of 
its birth, its living psychology has begun to form. 
It is in full possession of the power to wish, to ex- 
perience pleasure, to feel disappointment, and to 
make rudimentary efforts at getting what it wants 
or rebelling against what it does not want. Every 
slightest contact which the outer world makes with 
it, can have a bearing on its future development. 
Indeed some image-associations and response-models 
to which it becomes accustomed, during the first eight 
or ten months, often make apparently indelible im- 
pressions which persist throughout life. Those of 
us who are interested in the "better babies" move- 
ment will do well to think equally of the possibilities 
of a "wiser parents" movement, for the fruits of 
correct psychological handling of children will be 
quite as desirable, and quite as beneficial alike to 
child and future society, as those of improved phys- 
ical development. 

The first wish of the new-born child must be for 
warmth and freedom from peripheral discomfort, 
because the act of birth itself produces an environ- 
ment that is trying to infant as well as to mother. 
The first pleasure sense, then, will come from grati- 
fication of that wish, and the image is perhaps un- 
important; but the second pleasure sense, that of 
feeding at the mother's breast, becomes, through 
repetition, an image of wide and far-reaching sig- 
nificance. In the first place, it is gratification of 



Application to Everyday Life 137 

a major wish, with a minimum of personal effort, 
through the ministration of another. This, as we 
know, is a pattern of conduct by no means uncommon 
in the later life of most children — and adults also, 
for that matter. The person who is perpetually 
trying to get his wishes fulfilled through the agency 
of someone else, instead of by personal effort, is 
rarely missing in any average group. Since the 
infant must be fed we cannot avoid the formation 
of the image, but we can certainly avoid reinforcing 
it by an over-indulgent attitude and too much wait- 
ing on the child during the years immediately fol- 
lowing infancy. In the second place there is the 
development of the mouth as an important libido 
path, and this merits more extended examination. 

Inwardly and outwardly the oral cavity is to serve 
some of the most important purposes of the entire 
human organism. Outwardly it will be the chief 
path for the expression of ideas. This means much 
more than merely a convenience, much more than 
merely a piece of apparatus for the speeding of 
practical details of group life; it means a most im- 
portant outlet for the emotions. The angry child 
should up to a certain point be permitted to scream, 
if it likes, for it is getting valuable relief. A thor- 
oughly "talked out" quarrel will often leave little 
of wrath remaining. Spoken words, as an expres- 
sion of friendship or love, are tremendously 
valuable to speaker as well as to hearer. In psy- 
choanalysis a complex group of mixed emotions, 



138 Our Unconscious Mind 

repressed since childhood, may be given indispen- 
sable discharge through being thoroughly discussed. 
Similarly, in full confession of error or guilt there 
is frequently a great relief. The fervent speech of 
the patriot is a path through which flows freely his 
love for his country. Songs or bursts of cheering 
will give adequate outlet to the accumulated emotion 
of a crowd. The shouts of wrathful disappointment 
at a baseball game, would, if forcibly repressed, 
leave some of the onlookers in a dangerously 
charged state of temper. 

Inwardly, the emotional receptivity of the mouth 
may be considered under three heads. There is the 
reflex effect upon the succeeding portions of the 
alimentary canal, the taste of desired food being 
stimulative to the secretions of the stomach, while 
that of something very unpleasant may result in a 
protectively emissive reaction. This is scarcely to be 
classed as emotional, yet there may be an emotional 
affect associated with it. Then there are the direct 
pleasurable sensations of taste, which in the case of 
gourmands certainly reach the plane of emotion 
although of a low grade. And finally there is the 
unquestionably emotional significance of the lips. In 
the mere act of nursing there is an entirely sufficient 
— indeed often too great — development of this 
emotional path. Giving the baby a rubber nipple, 
as a "comforter," is to my mind unwise. In the first 
place, unless the "comforter" is regularly sterilized 
as often as used, which means several times a day, 



Application to Everyday Life 139 

it is a positive danger as a carrier of germs. But, 
more than this, its use greatly over-stimulates the 
autistic, pleasure-getting, emotional capacity of the 
mouth, and this is distinctly undesirable. Nothing 
could be more thoughtlessly illogical than to accus- 
tom a child to the autoerotic pleasure of the ever 
accessible "comforter," and later smear its thumbs 
with vinegar to prevent its sucking them. If the 
latter habit is to be regarded as something to be 
repressed, why inculcate the desire? We want the 
grown child to have an adequate liking for food, 
but we certainly do not want it to have an over- 
developed oral emotional craving. Incidentally, it 
is of passing interest to note that association experi- 
ments have shown that not infrequently excessive 
smoking has partial roots in an oral libido image 
formed during infancy. 

Let us consider next the images that may be 
formed in handling. A young kitten is quite con- 
tent in the nest provided by its mother unless it be- 
comes accustomed to being taken in people's laps, 
petted, and played with; in which case it soon be- 
comes dependent upon that sort of attention and 
gives evidence of craving it. Similarly, if a baby 
is incessantly being taken in arms, talked to, petted, 
played with, it quickly develops an insistent demand 
for attention. The care of the child thereupon 
grows more and more burdensome. But if this 
reacted only upon parents the matter might be dis- 
missed without comment. Unfortunately, however, 



140 Our Unconscious Mind 

it has far more serious consequences. One of the 
most desirable qualities in a human being is re- 
sourcefulness. We shall not have resourceful 
children if we implant, during their infancy, 
habits of constant dependence upon others. More- 
over, in thus arousing and stimulating, at far too 
early an age, the pleasurable emotions associated 
with being caressed and fondled, a parent is throw- 
ing the emotional apparatus out of gear with the 
all too frequent result of a neurotic and hypersensi- 
tive child. Dozens of times I have heard women 
remark, "A baby is the most fascinating thing in 
the world to play with." Would that someone with 
the tongue of an angel might also make them realize 
that a baby is the easiest thing in the world to injure 
for life; and that the mother who, consciously or 
unconsciously, thinks of her baby as a plaything, is 
to that extent its worst enemy! 

The baby, while it is a baby, should be allowed 
to grow as nearly as possible in an atmosphere of 
unemotional quiet. Its comfort should be looked 
after with the utmost care, and whenever its posi- 
tion is to be changed, or it is to be taken in arms, 
there should be the gentlest and tenderest touch; 
but lavish caressing, petting and excitement, should 
be positively ruled out. They are more than un- 
necessary, they are wrong. The infant's image of 
the contacts with others should be one of assurance, 
tenderness, strength, tranquillity, — not extravagant 
emotion, excitement and nervous exhibition. For 



Application to Everyday Life 141 

these images are to be wrought into response-models 
which will tend to prevail throughout life, affecting 
not only the later relation of child and parent, but 
the relation to others. 

Quite early in the baby's life some antipathies are 
likely to develop. Often it is well-nigh impossible 
to trace their origin. It may be that the first time 
a certain voice is heard it is not, by contrast with the 
softer voice of the mother or nurse, agreeable. It 
may be that the touch of a hand is cold to the sensi- 
tive skin. Sometimes the mere fact of disturbance 
is irritating. The perceptive paths of both eye and 
ear are, in many babies, extremely sensitive and 
capable of exciting sharp affects of fear or discom- 
fort from very slight cause. The sense of taste, 
during the first few months, has a very limited range 
of gratification, and it seems to have, even during 
this early period, a close connection with the sense 
of smell. Antipathies developed through these two 
senses may well be the cause of a child's persistent 
refusal of certain foods in later years. Often, of 
course, it is impossible to avoid the circumstances 
which give rise to antipathies, but with our present 
understanding of the force of affect-images and re- 
sponse-models, we can intelligently guard against 
many of them, and it is exceedingly worth while to 
do so. It requires very little thought to modulate 
a voice, or take care not to make a sudden and 
startling appearance, or to avoid touching the warm 
and sensitive skin of a baby with cold hands or un- 



142 Our Unconscious Mind 

sympathetic contact. And such care may be the 
means of avoiding an antipathy which years cannot 
entirely eradicate. 

I have known one father who was both distressed 
and puzzled by the fact that his little son showed 
frequent signs of a wish to avoid him, in spite of 
the fact that the father was kindly and indulgent 
toward all his children. A brief history showed 
that during the little boy's infancy the father had 
often playfully made alarming faces at him and 
greeted him with a loud "Boo!" under the impres- 
sion that "it was good for the kids to learn early 
not to be afraid." The difficulty can be overcome, 
but it need never have been originated. The feeling 
of complete responsiveness, confidence, and trust, 
may be surely implanted by care and patience. The 
door of every nursery should be protected by an 
inviolable commandment that the occupant of the 
room shall at all times receive precisely the gentle- 
ness and respect which would be accorded to an 
honored guest. 

Finally, it may not be amiss to suggest here the 
importance of remembering that, to some extent at 
least, it is highly probable that the mind — and pos- 
sibly something of the physical organism — of a child 
is impressionable before birth as well as after. Ex- 
cept for the addition of a few new experiences, there 
is no essential difference in the brain of a child the 
day after birth from the day before. A part, at 
least, of the central station has been functioning, 



Application to Everyday Life 143 

has been able to register affects and make some sort 
of response to them. Interesting observations have 
been made which suggest that while the mother's 
wish for a boy or a girl cannot determine the sex 
it may have something to do with the later behavior 
of the child as imitating the desired sex. The well 
developed boy is not so likely to simulate girlish be- 
havior, but many apparently well developed girls 
show "torn-boy" characteristics at an early age. 

I have two clear histories of the latter type in 
which the mother not only wished strongly for a 
boy but throughout the entire term of pregnancy 
persisted in regarding it as certain that the child 
would be male, and even called it by a masculine 
name. In both cases a healthy and vigorous girl 
was born and in early childhood developed decidedly 
boyish behavior. The evidence available is too frag- 
mentary to indicate any conclusions, but it is well to 
be on the safe side and wait until Nature has showed 
her hand. With more definite assurance, indeed most 
definite, it may be said that for several months before 
confinement the mother should to the utmost possible 
extent avoid excitement or excessive emotion, and 
should direct her thoughts, particularly her imagina- 
tion, along lines of cheerful, forward-looking, con- 
structiveness. Quarrelling and anger should be 
placed under a most rigid taboo. These things are 
not always easy of accomplishment, but they con- 
stitute a goal worth the most determined effort. 



144 Our Unconscious Mind 

FROM FIRST TO SEVENTH YEAR 

"Give us the child for the first seven years," say 
the Hindoo philosophers, "and the rest of his life 
will belong to Buddha !" This is perfectly sound 
psychology of the Unconscious. These are the years 
during which the primitive Unconscious is going 
through the three phases of dominance, compromise, 
and repression. During the first part of the period 
it is dominant. The child is not a cultural, but an 
instinctive-primitive being. It wishes freely in any 
direction and has no inhibition against the expres- 
sion of its wishes and the effort to make them come 
true. Its self is the center of the world, and evalua- 
tion of other people and other things is based on 
their relation to itself. In the broadest sense it is 
a complete egoist in its tendencies, rather than a 
cooperative being. If some other child has a play- 
thing which seems desirable, the response is the 
simplest and the shortest cut toward possession; 
either to reach for it or to howl for it. Obviously, 
the two steps of cultural advance from this reaction 
would be, first, to get pleasure from seeing the play- 
thing without possessing it, and second, to get 
pleasure from another's pleasure in possessing it, 
but these two steps require years of successful repres- 
sion and cultural practice. During this period of 
dominance of the Unconscious, the strongest emo- 
tional affects are likely to be associated with the wish 
for complete possession of one or both of the 



Application to Everyday Life 145 

parents; and the failure to achieve this complete 
possession is often marked by extreme disappoint- 
ment, jealousy, and sometimes decidedly resentful 
anger. The triangular family situations which result 
may be of profound importance to the child's later 
years, and should be given most careful study and 
patient working out. 

It is in no sense a child's fault, nor is it any indica- 
tion whatever of a "bad disposition," that it should 
try to possess what it wants and should be resentful 
when balked. The child is merely a natural animal; 
it is capable of extraordinary cultural and spiritual 
growth, but it is an animal nevertheless. It is not 
sinfulness, but simple nature, which makes a two- 
year-old boy snatch away the plaything it wants and 
crudely use its fist if the other child resists. The 
same is true when it clings to its mother and perhaps 
bitterly resents her embracing the father when he 
comes home from business. If the father in turn 
shows resentment — which he sometimes does — when 
the mother appears to give more of her affection to 
the child than she does to him, he may well ask him- 
self how far he has succeeded in repressing his own 
infantile Unconscious. Intelligent thought and 
cooperation between the parents can bring the child 
through this period with the minimum of difficulty 
in repression, and maximum of easy adjustment. In 
the first place, let us remember that we do not want 
to repress by force any more than is absolutely neces- 



146 Our Unconscious Mind 

sary, and never by violence unless no other course 
will fit the emergency. 

If a child tries to snatch things from others, or 
to use its fists, let it see in the mother's face neither 
anger nor half-amused tolerance; but quiet, firm dis- 
approval. Let the child at once be removed to 
another room and kept there for a time without 
playthings. It is an excellent plan for the mother 
to sit in the room also, paying no attention to the 
child and maintaining the expression of disapproval 
and regret. If every transgression is met by this 
image of isolation, quiet disapproval, and the sug- 
gestion- of sorrow and disappointment, if this image 
is impressed without fail, its significance will soon 
become unmistakable. Particularly to be recom- 
mended is the presence of the mother in the room 
because the suggestion of her attitude is invaluable. 
The image of punishment should never be merely 
the triumph of superior physical force. It should, 
if possible, always include segregation from the 
group with visible disapproval and sorrow by the 
child's strongest emotional object in the group. 

Straightening out the triangle situation calls for 
something entirely different, however, from punish- 
ment or disapproval. We must not forget that the 
child's attachment to parents forms its first love- 
images; and as these have the highest emotional 
intensity they will be most deeply implanted, so that 
the love efforts of later life tend to follow the models 
of childhood. In our study of the case of conversion 



Application to Everyday Life 147 

hysteria we saw that our patient's infantile love feel- 
ing became conditioned with deprivation, jealousy, 
anger, sense of loss, resentment, protest, hatred of 
another, frustration, and a sense of helplessness. It 
goes without saying that these are undesirable 
associations for the love impulse; and nearly all of 
them might have been avoided by understanding and 
care on the mother's part. If parents will seriously 
endeavor to put themselves in the child's place, and 
remember that the child is without any of their ex- 
perience in adjusting to the difficulties of life, they 
can make the child's path easy. Observation con- 
vinces me that comparatively few families are with- 
out this problem in greater or less degree. The 
traces of desire to possess, of favoritism, of jeal- 
ousies and resentments, are common. 

The first principle on which to determine parental 
conduct is justice. Neither father nor mother, hav- 
ing accepted the responsibility of children, has any 
right to let personal preference either govern the 
conduct or noticeably affect it. Often this requires 
a degree of earnest self-study and self-control. It 
is not easy to inhibit a natural leaning toward one 
particular child who peculiarly appeals. Equally it 
is difficult sometimes to avoid irritation, or a sort 
of jealousy, over the possessive striving and marked 
preference which a child may evince toward the 
other parent; but justice, understanding, self- 
restraint, and patience, will surely right the situation. 

Next to justice I would place discretion. Of love 



148 Our Unconscious Mind 

in the adult sense the child has not the slightest 
conception. It is to receive its images from the 
actions of parents. Let their conduct when in its 
presence express affection in terms within the child's 
experience and comprehension. Particularly if the 
child shows signs of jealousy or disturbance, there 
should be the utmost care not to excite these reac- 
tions by emotional demonstrations in its presence. 
The intimate personal life of the parents should be 
private, at least until the child has reached an age 
of adjustment and understanding. 

Birth, weaning, and adolescence, are the three 
definitive steps which signalize the separation of a 
new individual from an older one, with progressive 
attachment to the outer world. During the weaning 
period the mother will do her child the greatest 
service if she will by every possible means stimulate 
its desire for, and pride in, self-reliance. She can 
do this by such means as letting disappointment be 
apparent when the child insists on being fed by her 
instead of using its spocn independently, and by ex- 
pressing approval and pleasure when the child volun- 
tarily does things for itself. She may find that this 
requires much self-denial, for there is a strong in- 
herent tendency on the part of the mother to continue 
the habit of personal service to the thing which was 
so lately a part of her, but f he final goal is a resource- 
ful and self-reliant child, and it is worth the sacrifice 
of one's personal pleasure. 

With the beginnings of discipline there is need 



Application to Everyday Life 149 

for still further thought and understanding. One 
must keep always in mind both that a child is essen- 
tially imitative and that it has neither experience 
nor judgment. When it knocks its plate to the floor 
for the first time it cannot know that the plate will 
break, nor can it know why people should appear 
disturbed over the breakage and fail to join in its 
delighted crow over the clatter. To its primitive 
mind the crash and the flying pieces are quite an 
achievement. It has applied power to its environ- 
ment and got most visible and notable results. Why 
should those huge beings, who tower above it, sud- 
denly make wrinkles in the skins of their foreheads, 
and make queer clucking noises with their mouths? 
Alas, the process of repressing one's primitive 
responses to primitive affects, and getting in line 
with the will of the group, is about to begin ! How 
fast shall it be carried forward? How energetic 
shall be the measures of discipline? 

The answers to both these questions must depend 
upon the individual child. No two are exactly alike 
in tractability or disposition. One is sensitive, an- 
other phlegmatic ; one responds instantly to affection, 
another only to firmness; one comprehends early the 
use and purpose of discipline, another maintains a 
persistent and determined resistance to it. The idea 
of any fixed scheme of discipline applicable to all 
children seems to me as unsound as our present 
method of grouping all in grade classes at school 
regardless of difference in talent and ability. Cer- 



150 Our Unconscious Mind 

tain principles, however, may be clearly and assur- 
edly outlined as desirable, and as likely to avoid 
serious errors. 

i. A child should never, under any circumstances, 
be punished in anger. The image is merely one of 
wrath and superior power — in short of a stronger 
person wreaking emotional vengeance upon a weaker. 
The only justifiable theory of punishment is that it 
will assist the child in remembering, and that it will 
add a reinforcing, not a paralyzing, fear of hurting 
others and removing one's self from cooperative 
harmony with the group. 

2. Punishment should be for disobedience only, 
never for mere lack of knowledge or judgment. A 
two-year-old, who for the first time decorates her 
frock with the contents of a bottle of ink, is not 
guilty of anything but inexperience. She needs repri- 
mand to help her remember. Now if she repeats 
the act there will be some point in administering 
punishment, because she has disobeyed — she has in- 
terrupted the "team play" of the family — and at the 
earliest possible age she should be made to under- 
stand this difference. It will then be possible very 
soon to point out to her the inadvisability of trying 
experiments without asking advice. 

3. The point of discipline is to secure effective 
cooperation. Simple methods and illustrations should 
be worked out, and stories devised, which will replace 
the "king and subject" image of the average fairy 
tale with a simple concept of the state, and of the 



Application to Everyday Life 151 

father and mother as representatives of the state 
in the home. // this were generally done, and if 
fathers and mothers in their entire attitude showed 
unfailing respect for the state and the law, we should 
soon see an end of the lawlessness of American chil- 
dren. Switzerland, for example, can show us some- 
thing in this direction which we should do well to 
learn. Swiss children show high respect for law, 
as well as for the person and property of others. 
In this they reflect the attitude of their fathers and 
mothers. 

4. The child should never be punished in a way 
that will hurt its physical being, or, as the term is, 
"break its spirit." A broken spirit means that a 
child has been cowed, either by excessive pain or fear. 
The image thus formed may have most disastrous 
consequences in later life. Persistence and patience 
will finally get results without violence, and the re- 
sults thus obtained are beneficial and progressive. 

If a child shows prolonged resistance to discipline, 
amounting to a definite inability to make its conduct 
harmonize with that of organized society, the parents 
should have a competent endocrinologist examine it 
for possible glandular unbalance. Many "incor- 
rigible" children are merely suffering from endocrine 
disorder. Pathological lying and stealing for 
example, are frequently associated with pituitary or 
thyroid excess or insufficiency, and correction of these 
glands may result in a tractable, happy child, with 
fine mental ability. In my opinion, the time is not 



1^2 Our Unconscious Mind 

far distant when glandular examination will be as 
definite a rule with the children as dental examination 
is now, and the results will be of tremendous value 
to society as well as to the child. Particularly after 
an infectious disease is there likelihood that one or 
more of the endocrine glands will function faultily. 
Gradual recovery usually follows, but there is always 
the possibility of permanent ill effect. 

Many points of valuable study come under the 
head of imitativeness and not infrequently they touch 
on discipline. As before remarked, the child is with- 
out experience. If it sees you go to the ice-box and 
take out something to eat or drink, what more 
natural than that, at the first opportunity, it should 
follow suit? Suppose it resists going to the nursery 
at bedtime, and its mother adopts a ruse, assuring 
it that if it will come along without crying or being 
naughty she will not put it to bed hut will show it 
pictures, and suppose that she then prepares it for 
bed while letting it look at pictures. There is quite 
sure to be trouble when the pictures are taken away 
and the actual bedtime moment comes. Meanwhile, 
what has the child learned, except that it cannot trust 
the word of its elders and that a lie is regarded by 
them as perfectly permissible if only something can 
be gained by it? How much better from the very 
first, to ignore the protest, take the child to the 
nursery and put it to bed, paying not the slightest 
attention to its anger except to show sorrow and 
disapproval. This attitude, steadily maintained, will 



Application to Everyday Life 153 

eventually fix in the child's mind that there is an 
orderly sequence of events which does not change, 
and that protest against the law of order only results 
in disapproval and estrangement from the object of 
its love. Certainly this is better than learning to 
evade issues and to lie. 

Probably all of us in one way or another evade 
the truth to an extent perceptible to a child. It may 
not be intentional, but the evasion is there. Now 
a parent cannot expect standards in a child which 
are not maintained as the definite rule of life through- 
out the entire household. Nothing is more footless 
than to demand of a child that it be truthful, orderly, 
gentle, and considerate of others, unless we our- 
selves are living these attributes as a daily, constant, 
example. And what we make a rule for ourselves 
we should make a rule as to the child's neighborhood 
companions, and make no bones about letting the 
other children know precisely where we stand. Two 
or three unruly children allowed as playmates can 
keep the most intelligent parents busy trying to 
neutralize their activities. What America needs 
more than Sewing Societies is Neighborhood Coun- 
cils of Mothers, which will really study the psy- 
chology of children and put the findings into practice. 

Imitatively the child will also acquire chiefly in 
its home, such things as language, bearing, manner 
toward others, habits of order or disorder. But 
important as these are, they have but minor signifi- 
cance when compared to the family-relationship, and 



154 UR Unconscious Mind 

family-conduct models, which may so powerfully in- 
fluence and determine the adult mating life. Nothing 
is more acutely observed by a child, nothing more 
strongly conditions its idea of adult love, than the 
attitude of its parents toward each other. The little 
boy who sees the father treat the mother with un- 
failing courtesy, consideration and affection, acquires 
in his childhood years an invaluable set of images for 
reproduction in his adult life. The little girl who 
sees her mother indifferent and casual with respect 
to her home is quite likely to be in turn a poor mate 
and indifferent helpmeet. The father who shows 
little or no respect for his wife may expect that his 
sons will tend strongly to imitate him both in their 
attitude toward girls, and later, in their attitude 
toward women in general and toward their own 
wives. The mother who dominates and frets her 
husband is quite likely to see her daughters later 
select men of inferior type whom they in turn can 
dominate. 

The desirable situation as a model for children 
is one of equal companionship; but there should be 
a clear maintenance of sex differentiation. The 
woman of the household may be in some instances 
much better fitted to "wear the trousers" than is 
the husband, but let her not forget that her conduct 
is likely to give a strong bent to that of both her 
sons and her daughters. She does not want her 
sons to select women who will dominate them, or her 
daughters to develop strongly masculine traits; that 



Application to Everyday Life 155 

is to say, she does not want these results if she 
honestly cares for the future happiness of her chil- 
dren. A touring car will not long run well as a 
truck, nor will a fine piano keep its tune if used in 
circus parades; which merely means that a machine 
— or an organism — is best adapted to the purpose 
for which it was designed and constructed. Economic 
conditions not considered, the feminine organism 
functions best in the world as a woman, the masculine 
organism as a man. The mixed type is at a dis- 
advantage from every point of view. (An interest- 
ing part of Adler's theory is that the average child 
finds the world much more a man's world than a 
woman's world, and that this accounts for the "mas- 
culine striving" of many girls. It should be noted, 
however, that his observations are of life in Austria, 
and the Germanic situation of women is far different 
from that of America.) 

Keeping faith is an image which the child needs 
held before it steadily and unfailingly during its 
earliest years. This involves more than merely set- 
ting an example of truthfulness. It implies promis- 
ing nothing which one does not intend to make good, 
and making good every promise. It includes never 
betraying a child's trust, and never failing a child 
in its need of understanding. The trust of a child 
is the most implicit — and, to my way of thinking, 
the most beautiful — thing in the world. It can be 
made the means of almost unlimited character 
development; but once betrayed it is half gone, and 



156 Our Unconscious Mind 

twice betrayed it is likely to be wholly withdrawn. 
I have known a young woman who until the age of 
ten had regarded her mother as a twin soul. At that 
age, she committed a childish folly, which in her 
trouble of mind she confessed to her mother. The 
latter expressed most unnecessarily exaggerated 
horror and punished her with great severity. From 
that day, the daughter's life has been to the mother 
an absolutely closed book. The younger the child 
the greater its need of understanding and instant 
readiness to help. 

And while on this subject, I cannot forbear a 
suggestion to the person who gives religious instruc- 
tion to children. If God is worth telling a child about, 
He is certainly worth telling about in such terms 
that the child will not at the very outset lose faith in 
Him. I doubt very much if Christ would have told 
the children that God would answer their prayers, 
and then left in their immature minds the impression 
that they had only to ask Him for what they wanted 
and they would get it. Yet that, precisely, is what 
I find that many children understand they have been 
told about prayer. They do pray for what they 
want, they do not get it, and their faith in God suffers 
accordingly. From their point of view somebody 
has not kept faith with them; they have been de- 
ceived and disappointed. Moreover, I know a little 
girl who was told in Sunday School that if she saved 
her pennies and gave them to the mission fund, God 



Application to Everyday Life 157 

would be pleased with her and would give her a 
"glad heart." She did as instructed, and after sav- 
ing and giving for a month complained that she not 
only had not received a glad heart but had had no 
candy. 

Now these results are serious: they may not only 
discredit religion in the child's mind, but sow seeds 
of distrust with regard to teaching in general. And 
they are utterly unnecessary. The concept of religion 
may be made of inestimable service to a child. But 
the method of teaching it should be adapted to a 
child's capacity to understand. 

Mention should be made in this connection of the 
devastating effect of implanting unnecessary fear. I 
have known a boy of highly nervous temperament 
who developed an acute neurosis, in which the out- 
standing symptom was a terror lest he should die 
and go to hell. It is to be hoped that God will have 
more mercy on the people who implanted that fear 
than a medical psychologist would have. 

The whole subject of morbid fears and obsessions 
is worthy of the most careful study by parents of 
sensitive children. It would require a much more 
extended treatment than is possible here. Suffice it 
to say that the badly and frequently frightened child 
is a hurt child and is likely to carry some of its 
effects for years. In a lesser degree excessive teas- 
ing is also to be condemned, if the child's reaction 
to it shows any keen disturbance. Particularly to be 



158 Our Unconscious Mind 

avoided is any strong sense of helplessness or defeat. 
These, going into repression, leave unsquared emo- 
tional affects that are highly undesirable. 

In the chapter on the Libido and control of the 
will, attention was directed to "autistic" pleasure. 
It will perhaps make the idea clearer if this form of 
pleasure is spoken of here as "auto-erotic." It is 
characteristic of the infantile stage of development 
when the Self is the dominating factor in conscious- 
ness, and it includes the whole group of activities 
which express interest in, and efforts to get pleasure 
from, one's own body. If these interests and activi- 
ties are excessive during the early years, they are 
quite likely to recrudesce later and produce the 
Libido pattern which was shown under the head of 
"Introvert." This means a misdirection of energy 
and a turning of the life toward the most useless of 
false goals. 

I do not propose to engage here in an extended 
discussion of the harmful ways in which a child may 
handle its own body, but to point out the underlying 
psychological principle and its significance. Within 
reasonable limits a child's interest in, and curiosity 
about, its own body, serves valuable developmental 
purposes; and this should by no means be met by 
signs of aversion or intense repression by parents. 
Indeed the very fact of any strongly stressed repres- 
sion only serves to over-emphasize in the child's 
mind the importance of its auto-erotic actions, stim- 
ulates curiosity, and intensifies the desire for further 



Application to Everyday Life 159 

experiment in the forbidden field. The best cor- 
rective is foresight. The body of a baby should from 
the day of birth be treated with the same respect 
and the same gentle but impersonal touch that a 
physician gives his patient. There is a period after 
the baby's bath when the temptation is certainly 
strong, particularly when several months' develop- 
ment has produced the charming infant contours, to 
let the little thing lie and kick in its state of nudity 
and to pat and caress the rosy skin. Let us not 
forget, however, that every such occurrence forms an 
image of pleasure associated with exhibitionism and 
auto-eroticism; and let us be sure; ist, that we do 
not exaggerate or prolong the image; 2d, that we 
do not continue the practise as the child's mind be- 
comes more keenly impressionable. Many parents 
may object that it is a pity to deprive the child of 
these joyous half hours; but this is no more logical 
than to say it would be a pity to deprive the child, 
at three or four years of age, of the pleasure we 
may see it get from undesirable handling of its own 
body. 

Our goal for a child is a completely normal man- 
hood or womanhood and we have no right to help 
it form pleasure-images and pleasure-models of 
exhibitionism and auto-eroticism. If these develop 
strongly of themselves during the early years, they 
should be met, correctively, with quiet, unemotional 
disapproval, and constructively by teaching early an 
understanding of, and reverence for, the true pur- 



160 Our Unconscious Mind 

poses of the body. In this connection it will be 
found of great value to educate the child as early 
as possible in the difference between achievement 
striving and the procurement of pleasure autistically 
— in brief, progressively to educate in operation of 
the wish-force (will). 

This calls for replacement of one idea with an- 
other, and in all educational and disciplinary effort 
the method will be found of great value, particularly 
during the compromise and adjustment stages when 
the primitive wishes are gradually going into repres- 
sion. Merely to stop a child by force from doing a 
forbidden thing, does not change either the idea 
or the wish which prompted the act. The child 
learns nothing from the experience except that its 
power was insufficient to carry out its momentary 
program. There should be careful explanation, in 
terms which the child can understand (a fable or 
story invented for the purpose may help to make 
things clear), and stimulation of wishes to cooperate 
and to progress in the esteem of the group. 

Parents can help to develop constructive imagina- 
tion in their children by frequently expressing admira- 
tion for the achievements of other children; but when 
doing so there should be no such mistake as making 
comparisons. The child is perfectly capable of mak- 
ing the comparisons for itself. To have them forced 
on it, particularly if they are unflattering, only 
arouses jealousy and resentment; so that instead of 
a constructive suggestion working in the Unconscious 
there is only implanted a sense of inferiority. 



Application to Everyday Life 161 

Closely associated with imitativeness is the tend- 
ency of the child to identify itself with an older 
person. Usually this person will be one of the 
parents, less often a nurse, or an older brother or 
sister. The identification is generally quite uncon- 
scious, but its growth may be detected by the more 
and more marked effort at similarity of conduct. 
In the average case, there is no such thing as escap- 
ing it entirely; nor is this desirable, provided the 
person selected as the identification object supplies 
a good pattern of adjustment to people and to the 
activities of life. But it is not well that this identifi- 
cation should be too strongly fixed or too emotionally 
toned. The girl who identifies herself too strongly 
with her father is quite sure to develop masculine 
characteristics and thus partially inhibit her adapt- 
ability to her feminine role in the world. Similarly, 
the boy may develop feminine attributes if too closely 
identified, in his Unconscious, with his mother. 

Examining more deeply into this mechanism we 
find, as it were, the possibility of a double curve. 
Identification arises from admiration and love. Both 
the admiration and the love may for many reasons 
be so strongly repressed that they actually appear 
on the surface as their exact opposites. 

This possible ambivalence, or "two-faced" quality, 
of emotions, is well recognized. The following 
quotation from Wilfrid Lay's valuable book, The 
Child's Unconscious Mind, will help to convey a 
clear impression; "Love and hate are . . . ambivalent 
toward each other. Not only does one approve and 



1 62 Our Unconscious Mind 

disapprove another person for qualities some of which 
are bad and others good, as every one is a mix- 
ture of qualities good and bad, but one instinctively 
(that is, unconsciously) loves and hates the same 
person at the same time wholly and completely. The 
convertibility of the one emotion so quickly and 
easily into its opposite is sufficient proof of the 
fundamental ambivalence of all emotions . . . and 
if the emotions must have some mental content quite 
as much as movements of the body require some 
physical opposition it is quite conceivable that if the 
outlet for these activities towards a person is dammed 
in one way, say the love way, it will seek expression 
in the opposite way. . . . And with respect to the 
vehement attention given in love there can be no 
other way, if love is denied, than vehement hate. 
Indifference would simply mean directing the emo- 
tional activities toward another person. . . ."* 

It is in these last eleven words, and their corol- 
lary, that we find the key. Love and hate are exactly 
similar in that they signify concentrated emotional 
attention upon an object, and indicate that indif- 
ference to that object is impossible; in other words 
that the object is a point of emotional attraction. 
Now the over-intensified love of a boy for his 
mother, or a girl for her father, is conditioned with 
an unconscious wish to replace the other parent. This 
is the natural, primitive possessive wish of the in- 

* The Child's Unconscious Mind, by Wilfrid Lay. Dodd, Mead 
& Co., New York. 



Application to Everyday Life 163 

fantile Unconscious. It encounters a developing 
cultural understanding, which is at a higher level, 
and it is forced into repression. But, having a high 
energy capacity, it is frequently excited, and produces 
conflict. 

We may have, for example, the boy, who is 
strongly fixed on his mother, unconsciously striving 
both to be like her, his model, and to be like the 
father whom he wishes to replace. This impractical 
model may, later, make successful and happy mating 
well-nigh impossible. Now successful mating is one 
of the very strongest reinforcements of the per- 
sonality. It is the chief biological goal of the 
individual as well as the basis of organized society; 
and whatever in a child's life will tend to interfere 
with it is worthy of the most earnest thought and 
every possible precaution. When a child shows pro- 
nounced special attachment, the temptation to re- 
spond is naturally strong, but the situation should 
be treated with regard for the future rather than 
for one's impulses. The signs of fixation should be 
watched for, and by every possible means the parents 
should endeavor both to keep the child's emotional 
interest well sublimated in its play and study, and 
well divided between father and mother. Prevent- 
ively the parents may accomplish much by restrain- 
ing themselves from lavish caressing or excessive 
display of emotion with a child at any stage of its 
growth, and let them have no fear that this course 
will cost them anything of the child's love. That 



164 Our Unconscious Mind 

affection is neither the deepest nor the most loyal 
which makes the most extravagant display. 

With the life of the street and the life of the 
school come the parent's opportunity for new lines 
of observation and helpfulness. The critical ques- 
tion should always be, "How is our child adjusting 
to the outside world?" It is a law of life that ad- 
justment must come mainly from the individual. 
The problem is to reach a working basis with the 
herd and yet not sacrifice the individuality 

The instinctive effort of the herd is to level down, 
to discourage anything that is superior to its own 
average unless that superiority can be maintained by 
physical prowess. The sensitive child, particularly 
if possessed of strong individuality, is likely to find 
the going rough. The first effort should be to find 
simple ways of explaining how the human group is 
organized, the value of cooperation, and the neces- 
sity for tactful compromise when there are dif- 
ferences of opinions and contending wishes among 
playmates. Children are surprisingly apt at grasp- 
ing the rudiments of cooperation. Some of them will 
not "play fair," and certainly there is no way in 
which quarrelling or resentments can be avoided, 
but the parent's own attitude can do much to assuage 
the hurt of these, and to suggest ways of avoiding 
them as time goes on. Suppose that Johnny, after 
a game of marbles with Charles, comes into the 
house and indignantly declares that Charles has 
cheated. It does not adequately meet the situation 



Application to Everyday Life 165 

merely to comfort Johnny and to assure him that 
Charles is a "bad boy." The incident is one which 
is to be paralleled many times through life, in games 
far more important than marbles. Why not suggest 
that Johnny invite Charles to lunch; and then during 
lunch encourage both of them to talk it over? If 
necessary try to secure the cooperation of Charles' 
parents. I have seen one such example measurably 
affect the conduct of an entire neighborhood group. 
It replaces a set of destructive ideas with constructive 
and progressive ones. It replaces the primitive reac- 
tions with those which are cultural. 

Quarrels lead progressively to the first fight; an 
experience which with the boy, is in a sense epochal. 
If it results in victory there is a decided reinforce- 
ment of the ego, desirable to the extent that it 
encourages fearless contact with future menace, but 
highly undesirable in its model of the resort to 
violence as a means of settling differences of opinion, 
and equally undesirable if it is followed by boastful- 
ness and a tendency to domineer. Defeat, on the 
other hand, may result in deep discouragement and a 
most hurtful feeling of inferiority. 

Both father and mother will do the boy a great 
service if they will encourage him to talk the whole 
thing over with them afterward, being careful not 
to emotionalize the event in any way, making clear 
their acceptance of the necessity of defending one's 
self, but by no means encouraging aggression, and 
pointing out the general uselessness and destructive- 



1 66 Our Unconscious Mind 

ness of human combat. I have found that a strong 
impression can be made by likening a fist-fight to the 
back-yard battles of cats and dogs; the child's Ego 
Maximation instantly suggesting a desire for con- 
duct superior to that of the lesser animals. In case 
of defeat, care should be taken to emphasize that 
it is perfectly impossible to win all one's battles in 
life, just as it is impossible to win all one's games; 
that no one expects a child to do either, and that in 
the long run people admire and respect a courageous 
loser quite as much as the fortunate victor, provided 
always that he has done his best. It is important 
not only to remove the sting of defeat, but to give 
full discharge to any brooding resentment, which 
otherwise, repressed into the Unconscious, may have 
harmful and disturbing effects. 

To multiply examples is not necessary, since 
always the principle in helping the child toward 
adjustment to its playmates is the same; to encour- 
age thorough discussion, and to examine each situa- 
tion with reference to later adult life. 

No less important than the foregoing are the 
methods to be adopted in connection with what the 
child learns in the street about the procreative func- 
tions. Let no mother deceive herself. Unless a 
child is segregated from society, the chances are 
considerably more than even that before the age of 
eight years it will have begun to get, in one way or 
another, usually undesirable, a group of distorted 
ideas about its sex organism. Considering the 



Application to Everyday Life 167 

authoritative warnings that have been given, it would 
seem that this fact might have been by this time not 
only widely assimilated by parents, but as widely 
acted upon. Yet one is constantly encountering per- 
sonal histories which prove that exactly the contrary 
is the case. Fathers and mothers continue to evade 
the issue; and the oncoming generation pays the 
price. The time to inculcate reverence for the future 
possibilities and higher purposes of the human body 
is while the mind is yet unsullied by noxious ideas 
with regard to it. 

There is no necessity for elaborate anatomical 
explanations. These can come later, little by little, 
as the child's capacity to understand details increases 
with its desire for more thorough knowledge. I have 
found that a child of eight years is perfectly able 
to appreciate the beauty of plant and flower repro- 
duction. I have also found no difficulty in giving 
it a concept of a certain portion of its own body as 
a trust which is to be respected for the future, and 
in making it understand why the bodies of children 
of the other sex are equally to be held in respect. 
First of all, there must be implicit trust as well as 
unhindered frankness and confidence between child 
and parents. This is indispensable if the father and 
mother hope to be kept informed of just what in- 
fluences are at work among the other children of the 
neighborhood; and hence if they hope to meet and 
counteract the noxious ideas which may be encoun- 
tered from time to time. 



168 Our Unconscious Mind 

Above all, a child should never be met with false- 
hood or evasion, since these are not only a breach 
of faith but simply add to the subject, by their atmos- 
phere of mystery, an intensified curiosity and interest. 
The most serious aspect of the matter is that in 
which the child has actually acquired habits of get- 
ting autistic pleasure from improper handling of its 
body. Parents who discover that this situation has 
arisen, frequently make the mistake of meeting it 
with a lecture on sinfulness, or with severe punish- 
ment. Both methods are likely to be harmful and 
are wholly inadequate to meet the child's need. The 
procedure should be; ist, thorough enlightenment, 
being careful not to emotionalize the situation or 
implant exaggerated fear; 2d, give the child a new 
and finer vision of its body in a creative sense; 3d, 
stimulate, in every possible way, the imagination of 
strong, victorious self-control; 4th, implant fre- 
quently and regularly a series of progressive sug- 
gestions, and teach the child reflective autosug- 
gestion. 

Turning briefly to the subject of school life, I 
propose to offer a few suggestions which I have 
reason to believe will be found helpful, but which 
I shall not discuss at great length because once 
embarked on the sea of educational psychology one 
has no choice but to make a long, and for the most 
part, poorly charted voyage. Under our present 
educational system, the teacher in a public school has 
to deal with classes of such size that an individual 



Application to Everyday Life 169 

study of each pupil is a manifest impossibility. This 
is not the fault of the teacher but of ourselves, since 
We as citizens are responsible for our own institu- 
tions. But accepting, for the time being, the situation 
as it is, we may profitably consider whether we are 
doing all that is in our power to get the most out 
of the present system. 

To what extent have we prepared the child for 
school before it enters? Have we made it realize 
that it is part of a great people and a great nation, 
and that the school is the nation's nursery? Have 
we set it athirst for reading, by frequently suggest- 
ing and describing the wonders that are hidden from 
it in books? Have we made numbers its playthings 
by constructing fascinating games out of them? 
Have we made it want geography by entertaining 
it with pictures and stories of the strange lands and 
peoples — always being careful to associate these 
with the name "geography"? Have we steadily and 
persistently suggested our admiration for other boys 
and girls who show progress in the use of their 
brains? (I do not at all mean by this to imply that 
we should hold them up as examples, or draw com- 
parisons. I mean that by the frequent interchange 
of remarks between themselves in a child's hearing, 
parents can implant strong suggestion. The chief 
requisite is persistence.) Have we made it clear 
that we regard teachers as potentially the nation's 
most valuable citizens, worthy of all respect and 
cooperation ? And finally have we been scrupulously 



170 Our Unconscious Mind 

careful never to let the child hear us speak slight- 
ingly of a teacher or a school, or hear us recount 
with amusement any incident of our own school-days 
which would have the same effect? 

Most important perhaps in the constructive pro- 
gram implied by these questions, is preparing the 
child for the new relationship of pupil-and-teacher. 
It is best that this relationship should be thought of 
at first as impersonal. The teacher is the nation's 
representative. Personalization is bound to occur, 
but it should not be the predominant idea. Three 
most unfortunate questions to ask a child on its return 
after the first day in school are, "Do you like your 
teacher?" "Is your teacher nice?" and "Do you like 
school?" The suggestion attached to each is one of 
doubt and half expectant negation. How much bet- 
ter the suggestion in a greeting like this: "Well, 
you've had a fine change from home life. I'm sure 
you're going to like it better and better every day!" 
Which may well be followed with, "Your teacher 
has a very trying time getting things under way, at 
the start. Do help her in every way that you can !" 

To get the child off on the right foot with the 
teacher is always half the battle. If the progress 
of events shows, as weeks go by, that the adjust- 
ment is a poor one, the teacher should be visited 
and the matter thoroughly gone into. Model-for- 
mation is in process which may affect the child's entire 
career in school and college. 

The early sublimation trends would be detected 



Application to Everyday Life 171 

by a trained psychologist during the kindergarten 
year; and by the time the second grade year is well 
under way they are sufficiently clear to be perceived 
even by the untrained observer. They supply valu- 
able indicators of the activities of the Unconscious, 
and their correct interpretation is as valuable as it 
is interesting. Taken in conjunction with the child's 
dream-life, they are from day to day outlining the 
complete history of the Unconscious wishes as these 
are brought into working compromise with the Cul- 
tural and finally go into successful repression. It is 
a pity that the technique of analyzing dreams can- 
not be a part of every mother's equipment, for it 
could be made of priceless service, but unfortunately 
it requires specialized study and experimental train- 
ing; in fact its practice without thorough scientific 
preparation can only result in futility and sometimes 
disastrous mistakes; and there are probably not fifty 
people in America today who are capable of teach- 
ing it correctly. 

The intelligent parent can, however, readily see 
the sublimation significance of such interests as are 
given in the following examples : 

A. Aptitude and dexterity in the use of numbers. 
The underlying Unconscious urge may be; I. Interest 
in, and desire for combination. The young child 
partially identifies itself with all objects of interest; 
hence in putting one and one together it has raised 
to a high level of usefulness its Unconscious phantasy 
of itself in relation to another. II. Ego Maxima- 



172 Our Unconscious Mind 

tion. In addition and multiplication it finds ready 
symbols of growth and increased power. In sub- 
traction — taking the smaller from the larger — there 
is clear evidence of the power of the smaller (the 
child itself), since it invariably reduces the power 
of the larger. In division, again, is a similar play 
of the relation of smaller (child) to larger (parent) . 

B. Manual dexterity and specialization. The 
fingers are the first power symbols. They also be- 
come early associated with both pleasure and guilt. 
They are the means of grasping desired objects. 
They are used by the baby to palliate the cravings 
of approaching hunger and to gratify a pleasure- 
sense of the mouth. They are reproved, and some- 
times punished, for touching forbidden things. In 
employing them for purposes which win esteem and 
approval there are sublimation and compensation of 
most valuable sort, emphatically to be encouraged 
by every means. 

C. Special fondness for inventing and writing 
little sketches, compositions, etc. In this activity we 
see a child turning to good account its tendency 
toward day-dreaming. The phantasy-forming im- 
pulse is being lifted from introverted waste of 
energy to extroverted achievement. The highly 
imaginative child is creative and sensitive. It should 
receive praise and encouragement at every success- 
ful effort to turn its imagination into productive 
channels. 



Application to Everyday Life 173 

There is considerable difference of opinion, among 
students of child psychology, as to whether the 
imagination should or should not be stimulated by 
telling fairy stories. To my mind the question turns 
not on the telling of fairy tales, but on the selection 
of the tales to be told. We must remember both 
that the child tends to identify itself with at least 
one character in a story, and that the stories are 
forming affect-images and response-models which 
will later color both ideas and conduct. Imagination 
should be actively stimulated; but it should also be 
quite as actively directed. Stories which are replete 
with witches and bloodthirsty giants who eat chil- 
dren, will stand quite a bit of thoughtful censoring. 
The same holds true for those which contain much 
killing. Analysis of children's dreams has shown 
me much disturbing material which came from these 
sources. On the other hand there are plenty of 
stories in which the images are excellent; provided 
always that the child understands that the stories 
are stories; in other words, that it is not allowed 
to confuse unreality with reality. 

Recalling the chapter on suggestion, let us not 
forget that, whether we are conscious of it or not, 
a child is receiving suggestion from its first year 
onward, and is responding to it. Our words and 
actions alike are effective suggestions. Recognizing 
this fact we may make them, whenever in a child's 
presence, constructive, cheerful, forward looking. 



i74 Our Unconscious Mind 

Parents may steadily implant ideas of health, prog- 
ress, adaptability to circumstances, thorough all- 
around education, busy and happy adult life, success- 
ful mating and home-making. The thing to bear 
in mind is that the most effective suggestion is at the 
Unconscious level. Much more can be accomplished 
by conversations between the parents in the child's 
hearing, than by telling the child their views, al- 
though the latter method may have its value. 

As indicated at the beginning of this section, the 
first six or seven years constitute the period during 
which the Unconscious is passing through the three 
phases of dominance, compromise with the cultural, 
and final repression. There is no arbitrary line of 
division between this period and that which succeeds 
it, but the average child by the age of seven years 
has pretty well accepted the cultural striving of the 
group as its main rule of conduct. The best wish 
we can hold for it is that its repressions will have 
been made without undue effort and with no acute 
emotional problems unsolved. 

FROM SEVEN TO PUBERTY 

The importance of this stage as a formative period 
lies in the extroverted activities; the outwardly 
turned interests. More and more the repressed Un- 
conscious is able to express itself only in symbols; 
the Fore-conscious is dominating and directing the 
conduct. With each added experience comes an 



Application to Everyday Life 175 

accretion to self reliance and resourcefulness. With 
independent thinking, an individual point of view 
develops. Often it is quite as illogical as it is imma- 
ture, and all too frequently it is treated by parent 
or teacher with contempt and ridicule or dismissed 
as not worthy of consideration. This suppresses the 
child's opinion, but does not show wherein it is 
wrong. Moreover, such action discourages the very 
thing that should be most encouraged. The world 
is already full enough of people who cannot think 
for themselves, but must get their opinions from 
someone else. There is no reason to laugh at, or 
reprove, a child for thinking wrongly. Rather it 
should be congratulated that it does think; and the 
thought should be stimulated by frank discussion, 
not as elder to younger, or superior to inferior, but 
as equal to equal, friend to friend. The manner in 
which the parent calmly and dispassionately analyzes 
the topic under discussion will be of the very greatest 
service, conveying an unconscious suggestion of how 
to think. 

The child in turn will be unconsciously revealing 
its mental methods. If, in spite of careful analysis 
and demonstration, a child still persists in a point of 
view which is obviously wrong, the parent, remem- 
bering that the wish is often father to the thought, 
will do well to consider what wish, conscious or 
unconscious, is being served by the child's resolute 
adherence to an idea that is contrary to evidence. 
Sometimes it will be discovered that the wish is noth- 



176 Our Unconscious Mind 

ing more than an unconscious desire not to be men- 
tally dominated by an elder. Sometimes it is merely 
stubbornness ; which is frequently a compensation for 
unconscious weakness of one sort or another. Again 
it may be prompted by loyalty to a playmate, with 
whom the mistaken idea originated, and who is an 
object of peculiar affection and admiration. In the 
latter case, there should be a tactful effort to stimu- 
late thinking independently of the companions, since 
it is even less desirable that a child should become 
dependent upon playmates for ideas than that it 
should remain dependent on its parents for them. 
In all such discussions, the attitude to be avoided is 
one of impatience or domination; likewise the atti- 
tude of, "I am older than you, hence I know all about 
this much better than you do." Calmness, respect, 
reason, and tolerance, are the models to establish; 
with confidence and trust as by-products. 

Reference just made to special affection and loyalty 
toward a playmate, brings up the fact that identifica- 
tions, previously discussed, are now taking place out- 
side the family circle. It is no longer merely with 
father or mother, older brothers or sisters, but with 
other boys and girls, that the child identifies. This 
tendency, provided the objects chosen are of good 
character, is to be encouraged because it is a distinct 
advance in fixing the emotional interest on the outer 
world. The signs are readily perceived in imitative- 
ness, and should not be overlooked, since there are 
possibilities of undesirable, as well as of beneficial, 



Application to Everyday Life 177 

identifications. Some of the harmful situations may 
be grouped as follows: 

1. A boy identified with another boy whose in- 
fluence is bad. 

2. A girl identified with another girl whose in- 
fluence is bad. 

3. A boy identified with an older girl. 

4. A girl identified with an older boy. 

5. Either a boy or a girl identified with an undesir- 
able character of fiction, stage, screen, or newspaper 
notoriety. (3 and 4 are usually precocious romance- 
developments, and the object is occasionally a man 
or woman, who stands as the substitute for an 
abandoned — i.e., repressed in the Unconscious — 
over-identification with a parent). Observation, and 
an occasional adroit question, will get the needed 
information, but the best corrective procedure is not 
so easy. 

Here again a touch of sympathetic understanding 
will go farther than a blow of destructive criticism. 
In dealing with children, I have found it an excel- 
lent rule not to take away one idea until I had an- 
other ready to replace it; and the replacement idea 
is sure of acceptance only when it accords with some 
line of wish-tendencies already observed as active in 
the individual child's mind. Good can be substituted 
for bad, only if good is made equally, or more, 
attractive. Before a girl can be expected to abandon, 
for example, her imitation of an admired boy, it is 
necessary that she should really become convinced 



178 Our Unconscious Mind 

that she wields greater power as a genuine girl than 
as an imitation boy. The Ego Maximation is 
brought into play and the imagination constantly 
stimulated toward a true goal. If the source of the 
identification is frothy literature, it may be necessary 
to take drastic measures of prophylaxis. There can 
hardly be a more unfortunate influence for growing 
boys and girls than a cheap detective story, the 
second-rate movie magazine, or the salacious news- 
stand novel. The mere fact that such reading mat- 
ter does not appear in the family living room should 
by no means be accepted as proof that the child is 
not finding access to it elsewhere. At a school in 
Pennsylvania it was discovered that more than half 
the girls had for months been reading abominable 
pamphlets which were circulated secretly, and the 
source of supply remained a complete mystery until 
a girl confessed that she was procuring them from a 
cheap candy store. 

In another instance a girl of eleven, who had 
always been modest and well conducted, suddenly 
began to appear in school with traces on her face of 
paint, powder and lip-rouge. These were carefully 
removed before arriving home again, but the gen- 
eral behavior showed aftectedness, self-conscious 
allurement toward boys, and growing secretiveness. 
Investigation finally revealed a cunningly hidden col- 
lection of moving-picture magazines and the habit 
of slipping into, at every opportunity, a cheap 
cinema theatre in the near neighborhood. Coinci- 



Application to Everyday Life 179 

dentally came the discovery that just before dinner, 
when the mother was occupied in the kitchen, the 
girl was in the habit of entertaining a group of boys 
in the street by extravagant pantomime and posturing 
at the front windows. At first she seemed unable 
to realize that her conduct required any correction. 
The process of her reasoning seemed to be, "These 
movie actresses are applauded, their pictures are 
published, they are written about, they are talked 
about, they have jewels, fine clothes, money, and 
fame; I should like to be in their place; my parents 
pretend to disapprove, but they go to the movies 
often; they say a 'vamp' is cheap and common, but 
lots of older girls get themselves up to look like 
one; all this opposition is just because Mother and 
Father are old-fashioned and out-of-date." The 
latter point of view, often expressed by some of her 
companions, made correction extremely difficult. As 
a matter of fact, the appetite for the cheap litera- 
ture persisted for several years, and it was only the 
steady replacement by cultural education that finally 
brought mature perception. 

The point worth remembering is that punishment, 
or violent repressive measures would not have 
changed the point of view, but would only have re- 
sulted in greater secrecy and stimulation (by exag- 
gerated attention) of the false goal striving. The 
attitude of the parents on certain phases of the 
matter may be of interest. It was not, "Young girls 
should not use paint and powder, and make a show 



180 Our Unconscious Mind 

of themselves," but, "A young girl who uses paint 
and powder is sure to get a coarse, ugly skin; just 
as, if she plucks her eyebrows she will eventually 
make the hair-growth coarse and bushy, to her life- 
long regret. If she goes about imitating a 'vamp,' 
she is sure to be openly or secretly laughed at. We 
cannot spend all our time watching you, and, if you 
are determined to act in this manner when away 
from us, we shall explain to the neighbors and ask 
them not to mind when your behavior seems to them 
silly and ludicrous. We shall do our best to save 
your skin from being ruined, just as we shall try to 
help in every way toward your development into a 
mentally and physically high-grade woman, but we 
do not propose to have our lives taken up with in- 
cessantly trying to prevent you from spoiling your 
future. The job is mainly yours and you will have 
to accept your share of the responsibility." This 
attitude by no means represents perfect psychology, 
but it has some admirable points, particularly that 
of insisting upon a child's accepting partial respon- 
sibility. 

Gradually but steadily it is desirable that the 
social horizon should broaden during this period of 
pre-adolescence. It seems to me an excellent idea 
that children should be taken by classes, occasionally, 
to visit other schools. Moreover, at such times I 
would have them received not only by the teachers 
but by the individual scholars of the school. The 
citizen of the future, the citizen of the present, needs 



Application to Everyday Life 181 

a point of view that is broad and inclusive, not 
narrow and limited. The models for this can best 
be established during the early extroverting period. 
The horizon should widen coincidentally with 
growth. This is closely associated with resourceful- 
ness as well as viewpoint. Holding a child too 
closely to the neighborhood, retards to an unneces- 
sarily late period the natural ability to move freely 
among strangers. How many parents would be 
unafraid to let a boy of twelve undertake a railroad 
trip of five thousand miles through various parts of 
the United States? Comparatively few. Yet if the 
boy had been allowed to develop his inherent re- 
sourcefulness there is not the slightest doubt that he 
could make the trip easily, safely, and with great 
enjoyment. It is not so much true that children of 
the present day are being too much protected, as 
that they are being protected in the wrong way. 
The thing to fear is not the contact with the world, 
but lack of preparatory training in actual experiment 
for that contact. 

This is one respect in which the boarding school 
is valuable. Early adjustment to life away from 
home and familiar neighborhood does undoubtedly 
make for resourcefulness ; and the contact with 
others from many different towns, different sections 
of the country, is distinctly broadening. Moreover, 
it is to be said for the average private school that 
its smaller classes are a distinct advantage, giving 
the teacher an opportunity for study of the individ- 



1 82 Our Unconscious Mind 

ual child. The disadvantages of the boarding school 
are often more apparent than real. The atmosphere 
of many a boarding school is better for children than 
the atmosphere of many a home. Neighbors must 
often smile at hearing a nervous, fretful parent de- 
clare that its child "shall never be deprived of home 
influences!" The unconscious wish of such a parent 
is, obviously, not to lose the presence of the object 
on which it is able to discharge a portion of its 
mixed emotional tension. Such a wish would be 
disagreeable if consciously realized, so it is stopped 
by the Censor, is "rationalized" into agreeable 
form, and appears finally in the acceptable form of 
an exaggerated manifestation of anxiety for the 
child's welfare. This mechanism of "rationaliza- 
tion" is one of the commonest. It is seen constantly, 
in the production of plausible reasons for some 
course of action which is really in response to an un- 
conscious wish — a wish which if consciously recog- 
nized would promptly be refused the right of way. 
With respect to the family complex, the situation 
during this period tends to reverse itself. The more 
a child succeeds in detaching its interests from the 
restricted family circle, and projecting them out- 
ward, the more earnestly many parents attempt to 
check the movement and hold the child in a sort of 
psychic bondage. They seem obsessed by a fear 
of the son or daughter "getting away" from them, 
as if such a development would necessarily be most 
deplorable; whereas in fact if it does not progress 



Application to Everyday Life 183 

with undue rapidity it is highly desirable. "Tied to 
the front gate in childhood," might well be written 
as the epitaph of many a failure. Analytical work 
with young women suffering from lack of self con- 
fidence, and a baffling sense of inability to cope with 
the world, frequently brings out a history of domi- 
nation by parents amounting to incessant supervision 
of nearly every act and every external relationship. 
Usually this has been "rationalized" by the parent 
as "solicitude for the daughter's health and wel- 
fare," and it has never occurred to the over-devoted 
mother or father that exaggerated solicitude is a de- 
structive suggestion, since it fixes constant attention 
on ideas of possible — nay, probable — imminence of 
illness or harm. 

There is yet another angle to the fixation of parent 
on maturing child. Few men or women can look 
on life and honestly say that if they had it to live 
over again they would not live it any differently. 
Now the mother sees in her daughter, and the father 
sees in his son, the self, as it were, recreated. There 
is unconscious identification of the strongest sort, 
and this gives rise to two tendencies; one, to hold 
onto the child because, as I have often heard parents 
express it, "my children are my life"; the other, to 
criticize and direct the child constantly because, see- 
ing in the child the self image, the criticism and di- 
rection are being aimed by the parents at a symbol 
of themselves. 

Biologically, the mother and father certainly do 



184 Our Unconscious Mind 

live again in their children, but an effort to hold the 
children away from full-powered construction of an 
independent and individual existence, is not devotion 
to the children, but to themselves. Moreover, it is 
a direct attempt to defeat Nature's biological pur- 
poses. Quite often, if the children are aggressively 
constituted, it results in protests of steadily rising 
strength until there is definite rejection of further 
parental control. The weaker child, unable to pro- 
test effectively, yields to the domination, acquires a 
passive attitude toward people and circumstances, 
and becomes either an introverted failure or a 
nervous invalid. If there be a Day of Judgment, 
I can think of many things with which I should 
rather face a heavenly jury than the figure of a 
frustrated son or daughter whose chance for free 
self-expression had been sacrificed to my desire to 
operate its life my way. 

Sometimes, but by no means always, associated 
with the foregoing are signs of regression — a turn- 
ing backward from the aggressive contacts toward 
the more protected infantile status. Such indications 
may be read in growing reluctance to maintain active 
relations with the neighborhood group, in prolonged 
periods of day-dreaming; particularly if the phan- 
tasies are of melancholy nature; and in the resump- 
tion of early childhood traits. These may merely 
signify passing moods or phases, but if the signs 
persist it is well to consult a medical psychologist. 
The difficulty may be easily remedied if taken in 



Application to Everyday Life 185 

time. There is always the possibility that it is con- 
nected with disturbed function of one or more endo- 
crine glands, particularly if there have been attacks 
of infectious diseases. 

Some features of children's curiosity have already 
been discussed, but it is necessary to bring up the 
subject because of the relation between curiosity and 
imagination. The effect of contact with many minds 
is to stimulate curiosity, each new topic of discussion 
suggesting unexplored fields; but as the instinctive 
effort of the herd is to level the individual down- 
ward, the net result is to discourage imagination, 
just as it is to discourage independent thinking. Now 
the activation of a child's curiosity is a great in- 
centive to learning, but the suppression of imagina- 
tion just about counterbalances the effect. What 
we must aim at is to energize both. The methods 
— stimulative conversation, widely diversified books 
and magazines of travel, popular science, arts, 
craftsmanship, home-making, etc. — will suggest 
themselves to everyone. The point is not to forget 
that the repugnance of the herd for new ideas is 
definitely to be faced and outwitted as an influence. 

One very valuable effect of contact with school- 
mates during this period can be turned to excellent 
account within the home walls. Family life at its 
best is never overburdened with team-play. Amer- 
ican schoolboy life is developing the cooperative 
model in this respect most admirably, and I have 
seen delightful results from an adroit father's trans- 



1 86 Our Unconscious Mind 

planting the idea to the family group. With the 
mother's cooperation he organized the household 
as a team of six members, letting the captaincy pass 
from one to another in rotation, from week to week, 
but having it understood that father and mother 
were always to be considered as advisory coaches. 
The two girls of the group of four children were 
found to be, as might be expected, least responsive 
to the spirit of the team. They had had in their 
experience almost no models for cooperative effort 
(which incidentally suggests the great need of or- 
ganizing girl's play more nearly in line with the 
team method of boy's sports) and both of them 
showed a tendency to react emotionally where the 
good of the team required sacrifice of personal 
wishes. The father is certain, however, that their 
slower adjustment to the idea was not an inherent 
resistance but a lack of habit-model. 

In passing I may say that I believe this is wholly 
descriptive of the difficulty, so often charged by 
those opposed to woman suffrage, in getting women 
to cooperate among themselves harmoniously. It is 
true that, entrusted with the future of the race, 
women have had to be more highly and keenly in- 
stinctive than men, and this makes for individualism; 
but if there be any basis in fact for the charge re- 
ferred to, it is in my opinion amply accounted for 
by the centuries of lack of team habit. 

Of special importance for the pre-adolescent 
period, is the formation of systematic habits with 



Application to Everyday Life 187 

respect to the use of the day. I find the greatest 
difficulty in getting an unadjusted adult to accept 
this idea as a guide, where in his or her childhood 
it had not been applied. The period from seven to 
fourteen is the golden age for forming achievement 
habits. Parents should not only teach, but set an 
example of, briefly outlining the program of each 
day, regarding it as full of opportunity for progress 
and gain. Five minutes, just before going to sleep, 
given to a bit of directed imagination regarding 
achievement possibilities of the morrow will steadily 
and increasingly bear fruit, particularly if all ideas 
of difficulty, worry, or fear are resolutely ruled out 
and replaced by those of accomplishment and smil- 
ing courage. The cumulative effect of such a practice 
is of incalculable benefit. It should be made a 
regular and indispensable exercise, and should be 
persisted in until the mere approach of bed-time 
serves to set the suggestion machinery in motion and 
arouse thoughts of eagerness for the coming day's 
game of life. 

A part of the program should always be given to 
the allied activities of assuming some of the house- 
hold responsibilities and undertaking definite service 
to others in a positive form. The future of America 
depends upon the cooperative spirit of those who 
are now children, and cooperation, like charity, 
begins at home and is most easily taught in the 
home. The longer parents delay giving their chil- 
dren certain regular things to do about the house, 



1 88 Our Unconscious Mind 

the more reluctant they will find the children to 
accept any such work as a part of the day. The 
happy time to get a little girl accustomed to making 
her bed, dusting her room, keeping her own things 
in order, and setting the table, is while she is still in 
the imitation-of-mother stage. If, on the other 
hand, she is allowed to reach the age of thirteen or 
fourteen without ever having been called upon to 
do any of these things or to devote a part of her 
energies to the comfort of others, she will not only 
be less resourceful, but probably very reluctant to 
take on what she then sees only as an annoying inter- 
ruption of her self-seeking hours. What is true 
with respect to the girl-child is equally true for the 
boy. 

Even, however, if the matter has been neglected, 
it is never too late to mend. The human being is 
essentially adaptable. Habits can be revised. If 
the relationship of child and parent is harmonious, 
based on real confidence, esteem and affection, it can 
be made a lever of tremendous capacity. We have 
particularly to remember the bearing of esteem and 
approval of others on Ego Maximation. Demon- 
strations of affectionate esteem are given by many 
parents with much too lavish readiness. Let the 
child earn something of what it gets. Let special 
esteem and approval be the rewards of actual 
achievement. Let them then be given unstintedly. 
But let them not be so common that they are to be 
had for the mere asking and hence have no more 
significance than incidentals. 



Application to Everyday Life 189 

As adolescence approaches there are likely to be 
premonitory signs of inward change. The endocrine 
system goes through a process of re-adjustment, the 
thyroid greatly increasing its activity, the thymus 
beginning to atrophy, and the entire sex organism 
starting to develop toward maturity. With this 
change in the food-mobilizing chemistry of the blood 
there are new stimuli being given to inward-bound 
nerve paths which in turn produce new affects in the 
central station, calling for a complicated series of 
new reactions to people and to life in general. A 
process of such radical nature cannot but be disturb- 
ing to equilibrium, mental as well as physical. 
Heightened sensitiveness and irritability are common 
to it, and should be met with calm reassurance rather 
than sharp reproof or insistent suppression. In- 
creased nervous excitability needs to be met with 
steady suggestion of relaxation and tranquillity. 
Quite naturally a child is apt to develop signs of 
sex consciousness — shyness, and a general difference 
of behavior toward companions of the opposite sex 
— which is likely to mark the beginnings of rudi- 
mentary efforts at chosing definite love objects out- 
side the family. 

Sharp criticism or repression of these ideas of 
"having a sweetheart," is a very serious mistake. 
Guidance of the impulse by sound suggestion, toward 
a healthy-minded viewpoint, is certainly wise; but 
peremptory forbidding can only do harm, since it 
cannot repress the impulse but can only force it into 
secretive and devious channels. The natural and 



190 Our Unconscious Mind 

wholly desirable unconscious aim of the child is to 
transfer from parent to some satisfactory person of 
its own age all that quality of its own love which is 
associated with mating. This process of transfer or 
"bridging" from the family outward should receive 
the entire, wholehearted cooperation of parents. 
Unfortunately it very often does not. The Uncon- 
scious fixation of parent on child, heretofore dis- 
cussed, makes many parents, under the rationalized 
guise of exaggerated "protection," so manipulate 
affairs as to hold the child as closely as possible in 
emotional bondage to themselves. A few months 
ago when explaining this to a mother who for ten 
years had succeeded in balking every mating effort 
of her only daughter, I was countered with the ex- 
asperated reply, "Well — what if it's true ! Are we 
to work and slave to raise a child, only to see it go 
and spend its life with someone else?" I could only 
suggest that that seems to depend upon whom we 
love most, the child or ourselves. 

ADOLESCENCE 

With the changes which have just been referred 
to in the preceding section well under way, we 
enter the final stage in the child's preparation for 
adult life. The two outstanding characteristics are 
the development of a final working goal and the 
development of a final mating goal. The part of 
the parent has become more than ever that of ad- 



Application to Everyday Life 191 

visory coach, since the field of juvenile activities 
should now be too broad for parental field-cap- 
taincy; and it is to be hoped that it will continue to 
broaden progressively. 

The newness and strangeness of the material in 
both day-dreams and night-dreams, as well as the 
preponderance of romance feeling, expressed either 
directly or openly in their content, is often a most 
revealing evidence of the powerful force at work in 
body and brain during early adolescence. The hero- 
wish is also likely to come well to the fore and ex- 
press itself in idealistic ambitions which, though 
usually beyond the goal that is finally reached, are 
no less an invaluable stimulus to the achievement 
effort. The making of men and women out of chil- 
dren is one of Nature's most complicated and 
beautiful undertakings. It will be well worth our 
while to consider some of the ways in which we can 
assist her. 

Reference has been made to the partial emotional 
transfer from parents outward. This is accom- 
panied by a more or less clearly shown desire for 
greater privacy both of person and of property — 
very significant symbols. Unwillingness of parents 
to adjust to this desire is often attended with unfor- 
tunate results. It is a pity that our arrangements 
for housing human beings have progressed so little 
beyond the provision made for horses and cows. 
The sleeping accommodations, for example, of thou- 
sands upon thousands of families in our large cities, 



192 Our Unconscious Mind 

give a child even less privacy than that of animals 
in a stable. The adolescent boy or girl; indeed the 
pre-adolescent, for that matter; should have the 
privacy of an individual sleeping room, with desk 
and bookcase as indispensable parts of the furnish- 
ing. The arrangement of this room should be left 
largely to the child. The child's books, papers, 
writings, should be scrupulously treated as private 
property, and examined only with permission; except 
in the case of correspondence which is justifiably 
suspected of being unwise. Its privacy of person 
should be respected by the entire family, not as a 
special courtesy but as a model of conduct. Respect 
of a child for its elders originates in seeing them 
respect each other, and is finally fixed by the child 
itself receiving respect from them. There results, 
moreover, from willingly accorded privacy, a strong 
reinforcement of the personality, a realizing sense 
of emerging from childhood into larger responsibil- 
ities. Disregarding these tendencies, or suppressing 
them, not only results in frustrating a part of the 
child's unconscious striving toward a mature, inde- 
pendent, resourceful life, but often leaves a deep 
sense of hurt and injury which, reasonable or un- 
reasonable, is bound to affect unfavorably the later 
feeling toward the parents. 

The adolescent imagination needs to be viewed 
constructively from two angles. That element of it 
which is concerned in the mating striving needs to 
be watched with reference to the type of person 



Application to Everyday Life 193 

toward whom the romance feeling tends to direct 
itself. If the boys for whom an adolescent girl 
shows particular liking have characteristics resem- 
bling the girl's father it is very much worth while 
to observe which of these characteristics are most 
pronounced in the objects of her girlish regard. I 
have seen one instance in which nearly all the unde- 
sirable characteristics were present, with an almost 
total lack of the desirable ones. The method de- 
vised by the father to correct the difficulty was to 
criticize himself openly and frequently, and to 
mention repeatedly both his regret that he had not 
yet succeeded in overcoming his faults, and his de- 
termination to persist in eradicating them. These 
faults in himself he discussed often with the 
daughter, inviting her criticism. In less than a year, 
he had the satisfaction of hearing her actively crit- 
icize in boys the very characteristics which previously 
had attracted her. By an excellently contrived 
method of unconscious suggestion, he had raised the 
girl's standards of selection, and incidentally had 
started a course of eliminating long neglected weak 
spots in his own personality. 

It is, of course, true that great numbers of chil- 
dren never show this tendency to choose school-boy 
or school-girl sweethearts who resemble fathers or 
mothers, but the tendency is sufficiently common to 
be kept definitely in mind. In analytical work, it 
appears in the case-histories constantly. The tend- 
ency is usually unconscious on the child's part; indeed 



194 O ur Unconscious Mind 

the resemblances often exist only in the similarity 
of a single trait of character or physical character- 
istic. One man of my acquaintance has frequently 
said in my hearing, "The woman I marry has got 
to be tall, well built, and fond of music." This 
happens to be a partial description of his charming 
mother. 

Another phase of this element of the imagination 
which will bear the closest study is that in which the 
romance feeling goes out toward objects of the same 
sex. This is much more likely to occur in the case 
of a girl than of a boy. It usually appears, in the 
boy, only as an exaggerated admiration of some 
older boy, a sort of hero worship, and may be 
turned to good account if it merely stimulates a wish 
to attain to leadership. When it persists, and es- 
pecially if it becomes associated with a settled dis- 
taste for the society of girls, the parents will do well 
to discuss the situation with a medical psychologist, 
for there is danger of a false goal being developed 
which will result in poor adjustment to life. In girls 
this direction of the romance feeling toward other 
girls, usually older, is not only quite common, but, 
according to reliable observation by teachers in girls' 
schools, it is on the increase. Moreover, the emo- 
tional nature of girls being much less suppressed 
than that of boys, it quite often assumes a highly 
emotional form. Such situations are fraught with 
real danger, and require the most delicate handling. 
Parents should by no means either allow matters to 



Application to Everyday Life 195 

drift or attempt to deal with them by peremptory 
suppression. There is always a possibility that the 
endocrines are not functioning properly. The phys- 
ical as well as psychological factors need careful 
investigation. There may not be a thoroughly 
feminine development internally. Insufficiency of 
thyroid secretion, to mention only one of the possible 
deficiencies, may mean inadequate stimulation and 
retarded growth of sex organs which are therefore 
unable to stimulate normal mental affects. 

Psychologically, several pictures may be sketched, 
in all of which it must not be forgotten that the 
central feature is the natural adolescent striving to 
transfer certain elements of emotion outward from 
the family. The girl may have had an inordinate 
attachment for the mother with a strong unconscious 
wish in early childhood to take the father's place in 
the mother's affections, this latter wish leading to 
unconscious imitative identification with the father. 
The model thus formed is a masculine striving for a 
feminine love-object. Again, the girl may through- 
out childhood have found her father emotionally 
cold and unresponsive, while her mother was exactly 
the opposite. The associations have therefore 
strongly suggested a feminine rather than a mascu- 
line love-image. Again, the girl may have had a 
strong love for the mother in early childhood, and, 
through the mother's death, or through the coming 
of other children (cf. our hysteria case) may have 
suffered a deep and prolonged sense of loss and de- 



196 Our Unconscious Mind 

privation of this cherished affection. In this case, 
the adolescent seeking could be, unconsciously, for 
a mother substitute. These examples will serve to 
illustrate the ways in which, psychologically, the cir- 
cumstances of childhood can have given rise to false- 
goal images. Expert advice should be had by all 
means. The situation may right itself, or reach a 
level of working compromise, without assistance; 
but the outlook for successful and happy adjustment 
to life will be far better if the girl has skillful atten- 
tion and help. Parents can make excellent use of 
unconscious suggestion, but this needs careful direc- 
tion and sure understanding of the real causes of 
the misdirected mating energy. 

Returning to the first mentioned element of the 
imagination — that which relates to work and to the 
final goal of trade, profession, or business — there 
are several ways in which the ideas may be directed 
with great benefit. Economic necessity may compel 
early choice, but unless this is the case it is best to 
hold up a general all-round education as the most 
desirable basic attainment of man and woman. 
Probably two out of every three children will have 
shown, by the age of fifteen or sixteen, some special 
trend or preference that has possibilities of adult 
development as a career. But shall we immediately 
assume, as some systems of education would have 
us do, that the best future for the child lies along 
this path? By no means, if we are to make intel- 
ligent use of our knowledge of the forces at work 
below the surface of the mind. 



Application to Everyday Life 197 

We know that there may be compensation striv- 
ings, identifications, and temporary sublimating 
needs, which can give controlling direction to the 
activities, and which for the time being may have 
urgent need of the outlets chosen. But because a 
boy has strong compensation need of an added 
power-sense, and gives evidence of it by great desire 
to drive motor cars, we need not jump at the con- 
clusion that his best career is that of an automotive 
engineer, and begin suggesting this to him. Nor 
because a girl, influenced by an exhibitionistic trend, 
which has been reinforced by attractive pictures of 
a famous danseuse, begins to show great interest in 
toe dancing, need we conclude that she is cut out for 
ballet fame. The early interests are important indi- 
cations of what is going on inside, but we should 
neither give them exaggerated encouragement be- 
cause we happen to like them, nor try to suppress 
them because we happen to disapprove of them as 
a career. They are merely valuable data. If they 
are harmless, and if the child shows a strong wish 
to pursue them, by all means let us give it oppor- 
tunity to do so, taking a sincere interest in the spe- 
cialization, but holding out always the ideal of a 
well-rounded education as sure to improve the 
capacity for any or every line of work. An early 
fixed idea with respect to a career is occasionally so 
definite that the one thing to do is to get in line and 
help the child toward it, but even then the suggestion 
of thorough general education is not to be neglected. 
There is no reason why a musical genius should 



198 Our Unconscious Mind 

grow up Ignorant of literature, history, and general 
science. 

Not infrequently, one encounters a family situa- 
tion in which one finds that the adolescent children 
regard their future as settled for them. On the one 
hand, there is the case of a father who has always 
told the child that it is to be so and so, — doctor, 
artist, lawyer, business man; singer, actress, house- 
wife, designer, writer — until passive acceptance of 
its future destiny has become for the child a settled 
habit. The parent who has followed this procedure 
is, of course, being controlled by an unconscious wish 
to live his own life twice; he wishes to see carried 
out by the child a part of his own unfulfilled ambi- 
tions. His "rationalization" is a self-satisfied cer- 
tainty that what he desires is unquestionably best 
for the child. And then there is, on the other hand, 
the situation which arises from the curse of too 
much money. The formula is, "It doesn't matter 
particularly what I do. My future is safe ; my life 
has always been easy, and always will be. If some- 
time I find something to do which amuses me, 
doesn't interfere too much with pleasure, and doesn't 
require hard work, I may do it; but why bother to 
think about it?" The natural result of such an en- 
vironment is: first, no habits of useful achievement 
are formed: second, the imagination is habitually 
occupied with ideas of pleasure instead of ideas of 
attainment. 

Finally, we must not overlook the situation in 



Application to Everyday Life 199 

which a boy is brought up with the settled under- 
standing that he is to go into his father's business. 
This attitude of the parents neglects two such, to 
them apparently minor, details as the boy's natural 
bent and the best interests of the business. More 
than one man who has built a great business has lived 
to complain bitterly of his son's indifference or lack 
of ability to make the business go. It would not be 
a bad idea to remember that the son is not solely a 
reproduction of the father but is compounded of two 
parents, four grandparents, and eight great-grand- 
parents, not to mention the preceding multiplicity 
of generations. A New England chemist has suc- 
ceeded in making a near-silk purse out of the bristles 
from a sow's ear, but no process has yet been devised 
for making successful business executives to order. 
As adolescence progresses, the specialization 
trends are likely to show many changes unless the 
earliest ones have been overemphasized by intensive 
suggestion. The mature ambition of twenty-one is 
likely to be far different from that of fifteen, and 
of a distinctly higher level. The effort throughout 
the period should be to stimulate the imagination, 
negatively against idleness and a useless life, posi- 
tively toward mental development and achievement. 
This calls for definite, frequent, presistent sugges- 
tion. If the response seems slow, there need be no 
discouragement, since, particularly during the years 
from fourteen to seventeen, the internal disturbance 
is often sufficient to make mental application to 



200 Our Unconscious Mind 

work, and the entire attitude toward work, quite dif- 
ficult. Patience and calm persistence are the magic 
keys. 

The reference to imagination and suggestion 
brings up the subject of teaching children autosug- 
gestion so that they may use it intelligently them- 
selves. The difficulty is that it is worse than useless 
unless taught scientifically, in accord with demon- 
strable psychological laws. In Geneva its value for 
children has been demonstrated, and is being dem- 
onstrated every day, beyond any question of doubt. 
Baudouin remarks, "In the education of children, 
nothing could be more erroneous than to believe that 
in them imagination is an imperfect form of reason, 
so that imagination must be suppressed and must be 
replaced by the perfected reason. Imagination is 
something very different from a larval form of 
reason. It has its rights side by side with and in- 
dependently of reason; it is a precious force for the 
individual, were it only as a medium for the out- 
cropping of the subconscious and as a precondition 
of suggestion. We must teach children to do justice 
to all their faculties; they must not let any one 
faculty encroach; they must not, for example, allow 
imagination to usurp the place of reason; they must 
cultivate every faculty, imagination as much as the 
rest, nay, more than the rest." 

And again, "I would go farther, and would say 
that autosuggestion ought to take a primary place 
in education. For, by its use, not only will the child 
learn self-control, not merely will he develop his 



Application to Everyday Life 201 

physical energies and be helped to resist disease, 
but in addition he will be able to develop (in a 
degree hardly conceivable by those who have not 
seen the method applied) his working powers in all 
fields. He will learn how to obtain the maximum of 
results with a minimum of effort; he will acquire a 
method which will be a stand-by to him throughout 
life. In the intellectual sphere he will develop all 
his faculties, and memory and attention above all. 
In especial he will learn to like his work."* 

In conclusion, no consideration, however brief, of 
the adolescent period, has touched the vital point 
unless it takes cognizance of the need for sublima- 
tion of the physical urge which arises — whether 
recognized as such, or not — with the maturing in- 
ternal development. Exercise, and plenty of it, is 
the means which one thinks of first, and this is sound 
thinking; but it should not go without qualification. 
Adolescence is usually a time of great growth, and 
it is always a time of deep readjustment and in- 
creased nervous excitability. Much of the vitality 
is needed for growth. Violent exercise, as well as 
prolonged or intensive periods of athletic training, 
is likely to be far more harmful than beneficial. 
Supervisors of athletics are coming more and more 
to recognize this fact and to make it their guide; 
moreover, they are increasingly giving their atten : 
tion to adapting exercises to the special temperament 
and condition of the individual. 

*Op. cit, page 93. 



202 Our Unconscious Mind 

Unfortunately but a small percentage of all the 
children can avail themselves of such expert guid- 
ance, and without something to replace it they 
neither exercise intelligently nor with wise restraint. 
Parents may do very great service, therefore, if they 
will make their children understand how very im- 
portant it is that the body should not be overtaxed 
or the nervous energy expended to the point of un- 
balance or exhaustion. The form of sport should 
be chosen to supply activity to the entire body; to 
give training in coordination, rythm, and ease of 
motion; to avoid excessive strain, or overworking 
the heart. The boy or girl should be taught insist- 
ently that at the first sign of excessive fatigue, the 
game, whatever it may be and whatever the circum- 
stances, should be promptly discontinued. The idea 
of a sixteen-year-old boy staggering across the finish 
line of a mile run, in utter collapse; or a fifteen-year- 
old girl playing the last half of a basket-ball game 
with set teeth and suffering body; is one which 
simply should not be tolerated. Both boy and girl 
will pay a price out of all proportion to the purpose 
of the effort. 

It should not be forgotten also that the nature of 
the urge which is to be sublimated is basically emo- 
tional. In dancing, properly taught and intelligently 
supervised, is a most valuable outlet and beneficial 
exercise. Outdoor dancing, in particular, might be 
widely developed in America with results of the 
greatest value. 



Application to Everyday Life 203 

MATING 

How many of us who have attained maturity, 
looking back upon ourselves at the age of nineteen, 
can say that we had a clear idea of what we were 
aiming at by way of a mating life? To make the 
question somewhat more searching; how many of us 
had had from our parents a definitely implanted and 
constructively developed thought-process in that 
connection? 

Learning is developed by experience, and Nature 
provides, in the boy-and-girl-sweetheart stage, and 
in the "calf-love" stage, a series of experiments (un- 
consciously such) which help greatly in stimulating 
the mating urge and in discovering both what is 
wanted and what is not wanted for the final goal. 
This is the main reason why I have suggested that it 
is unwise to block the formation of such attachments. 
There is such a thing as protecting a child too much, 
protecting it so completely that it eventually dis- 
covers it is grown up without any of the experiences 
necessary to fit it for coping with adult life. But 
more important even than those experiences, is a 
sound, constructive series of ideas, built up from 
late childhood all through the period of adolescence; 
and at the risk of being set down as a sentimentalist 
I am going to say without qualification that I am 
convinced that the central idea to be insistently em- 
phasized is not a material one but a spiritual one. 
Companionship, home, children, all these are im- 



204 ° UR Unconscious Mind 

portant, but their importance to the complete de- 
velopment of the individual — in particular, to the 
development of the higher nature of the individual 
— is in my opinion relatively insignificant in com- 
parison to the importance of a fully accepted and 
deeply lived love-life. 

Women, as might be expected, have a clearer in- 
stinctive concept of this than have men. We Amer- 
ican men have so wide an outlet for our energy, 
and have become so saturated with the idea of 
material success and the thrill of acquisition and pos- 
session, that we are in danger of losing our vision 
of the developmental intention of the race. For the 
lower animals there is sufficient satisfaction in im- 
provement of the material conditions of life, food, 
comfort, safety; but this form of progress will not 
permanently satisfy the sense of his destiny which 
resides in the Unconscious of man. Regardless of 
where the impulse may have originated, it is cer- 
tain that the impulse toward progressively higher 
spiritual (or ethical) levels does exist in certain 
portions of the human race; and it needs only the 
simplest analysis of the heightened spiritual purposes 
of the young man or young woman in love, to per- 
ceive with what type of emotion this deep impulse 
is associated. 

At first thought it might seem that this is a nega- 
tion of the previous description of the Unconscious 
as instinctive-primitive, but the apparent discrepancy 
disappears when we remember that ethical conduct 



Application to Everyday Life 205 

is actually a development of two primitive impulses; 
one, the impulse of affection toward external objects; 
the other, the desire for esteem and approval. 

To love someone else is to externalize one's emo- 
tional interest. To love someone else more than 
one's self is to externalize supremely. We need 
only recall the diagram of a normal adult, in the 
chapter on "Libido," to appreciate the significance 
and value of such a model, particularly when it is the 
response to one of the strongest affects in the per- 
sonality. A critical characteristic of the normal 
adult is outwardly turned interests, externally 
achieved gratifications. There can be no clearer 
image, as there can be no stronger incentive, for the 
development of this characteristic in the early years 
of adult life, than a deeply felt, steadily energized 
love for one who is a suitable mate. Such a love 
adds something of purpose and direction to all the 
achievement activities. It has its occasional elements 
of distraction, but for the most part it adds to, 
rather than detracts from, the force of one's efforts, 
especially if it is in line with a long-cherished aim. 

But to return to its influence upon the ethical out- 
look and conduct; the emotion of love, at its proper 
cultural level, is associated with self denial and 
service. These are externalized energy paths. By 
contrast, acquisition and possession are much nearer 
to inwardly directed emotion. The miser, for ex- 
ample, is really an introverted person. His exter- 
nalized energy is devoted mainly to procuring some- 



206 Our Unconscious Mind 

thing which he can withdraw from the rest of the 
world and make part of himself. In the Ego Maxi- 
mation of love, one adds one's self to the substance 
of others, and one is thereby multiplied; while in 
that of acquisitiveness one subtracts from the sub- 
stance of others in order to add to one's own insuf- 
ficient self. The finer human qualities associated 
with love, such as unselfishness, gentleness, sym- 
pathy, patience, tolerance, purity of thought, will- 
ingness for service, are furthered in the highest 
degree by the constant presence of the dynamic 
emotion as a ruling purpose of life. We may ask 
ourselves again: Was that the central idea of our 
own mating image? — and, if so, have we kept faith 
with it? I would not be understood as implying that 
otherwise a useful and well extroverted life is im- 
possible; but merely as emphasizing the value of a 
fully rounded love-life whose essence is service. 

The preceding sections of this book will have 
failed of a part of their object if they have not made 
clear the likelihood that early mating efforts may 
be turned toward objects which satisfy images ac- 
quired within the family; and if they have not made 
equally clear the reasons for such likelihood. That 
a young man should unconsciously seek a woman 
who in some way resembles his beloved mother is 
both likely and natural; quite as it is natural and 
likely that a young woman may transfer most readily 
to a man who suggests to her Unconscious a father 
or older brother who has been an unfailing refuge 



Application to Everyday Life 207 

and inspiration. Moreover, there is no reason why 
such a choice should not be an entirely happy one, 
provided that the unconscious wish to preserve the 
family image has not been so strong as to override 
serious objectionable factors. Love is proverbially 
unreasonable, but there is no situation in which it 
seems more wholly blind than this. Indeed the ob- 
stinate refusal to weigh any objection, however ap- 
parent, in the love object, may well be taken as 
indicating a strong probability that an unconscious 
family fixation has prompted the choice. 

There is still another aspect which should be 
borne in mind as a possibility. There may be a 
strong unconscious fixation upon a parent, which is 
so vigorously denied recognition in consciousness 
that at the latter level it appears in the form of com- 
plete negation, a tendency always to disagree, to 
take up a position exactly opposite to that of the 
parent on all occasions. Under these circumstances, 
if the parent disapproves of the mating choice, that 
disapproval in itself is sufficient to make the young 
man or young woman adhere to the choice with ob- 
stinate determination. 

Another factor to be considered is the physical 
one. Unless attraction here is direct, strong, and 
unimpeded, unless the physical attunement is clearly 
perceptible and entirely agreeable, there are quite 
sure to be psychological sequences which are any- 
thing but favorable to the outlook for a happy life 
companionship. From an endocrine viewpoint, there 



208 Our Unconscious Mind 

are many interesting angles which bear not only upon 
the immediate relation, but also upon the children 
which may result from the union. For the most 
part, however, these are still in the speculative and 
experimental phases, and we are justified only in the 
general observation that marriage to an obvious 
glandular inferior is giving hostages to fate, both as 
to one's own happiness and as to the constitutions 
of one's children. 

The foregoing brief review is intended to suggest 
a few lines of thought which may be helpful in the 
process of mating selection. It goes without say- 
ing that love cannot be planned; the emotions are 
essentially spontaneous affects. But the existence of 
a love feeling does not necessitate its being blindly 
followed. The existence of a reasoned group of 
ideas is a guide which may save one from disaster. 
I have sought to indicate that these ideas should 
center around the purpose to make life a continu- 
ing act of externalized love and service, that they 
should prefigure a mate without intensive adherence 
to family images, that they should include a dis- 
position to weigh objections frankly and fairly, and 
that they should not disregard physical unsuitability. 

As a corollary I would suggest the unsoundness 
of constructing definite pictures of the physique or 
temperament which alone will be accepted. The 
young woman whose childhood fondness for Lorna 
Doone has made her project another John Ridd as 
her future husband is likely to discover at the age of 



Application to Everyday Life 209 

twenty-five that heroes of fiction are not scattered 
about the earth awaiting her appearance. A young 
woman whose admiration for a tall, blond, older 
brother, has made her determine that her husband 
must be cast in the same mold, may while waiting, 
miss the love of a brown-haired man of medium 
height who would have made her royally happy if 
she had not put a mental block on her emotional 
path. Similarly, a young man who declares that 
he will marry only a slender brunette has set his 
regard upon the shell instead of the kernel; or an- 
other who insists that his wife must be a good cook, 
has set his stomach's pleasure as a mating goal. 

Quite as definitely as successful and happy mating 
reinforces the personality, unsuccessful mating may 
weaken it, both by destroying the sense of well-being 
and by transfer of the sense of failure and discour- 
agement to all one's activities. And equally the fact 
of defeat in love, of failure to win the object of 
one's affection, has its recoil upon one's self esteem, 
one's evaluation of, and confidence in, one's own 
power. It is a severe blow to the Ego Maximation 
striving. The intolerable unconscious sense of de- 
feat is actually the moving force which prompts a 
murderous rage of jealousy. The primitive Uncon- 
scious simply cannot stand the implication that an- 
other is superior to itself. Jealousy, under analysis, 
comes down to the plain fact of the inability to 
stand defeat. The same fact is responsible for the 
deep discouragement, often actual prostration, which 



210 Our Unconscious Mind 

follows disappointment in love. (The feeling of 
deprivation also, of course, is a factor.) In both 
instances, the possessive element in the love must 
obviously be dominant. If we loved generously, our 
first concern would be for the other's happiness; and 
if that happiness was promoted by our absence 
rather than our presence, or if it was best forwarded 
by the presence of someone else in our place, then 
we should react with cooperation rather than re- 
sentment or jealousy. That we do not, but react 
in wholly selfish terms, is sufficient indication of the 
primitive nature of the Unconscious and of its emo- 
tional affects and responses. 

Let us not forget that inability to stand defeat is 
essentially an evidence of inferiority, either of con- 
stitution, or training, or both. But let there be no 
discouragement in the recognition of this, for self- 
analysis and persistent auto-suggestion of the right 
sort will work wonders. Disappointments in life are 
inevitable, but almost anyone can learn, first, to 
analyze them so as to absorb the lessons which they 
contain, and second, to replace them with forward- 
looking, constructive ideas of the future. Any loved 
person is important, and failure to win is, tempo- 
rarily a great loss. But the thing of dominant im- 
portance is not the individual love-object but the 
will to love. This must be preserved, reinforced, 
cherished, regardless of disappointment and failure. 
Its effect upon one's self and others is priceless. 
Rendered into service its value is incalculable; and 



Application to Everyday Life 211 

in spite of one, or two, or half-a-dozen, failures of 
attachment, there is always tomorrow and tomor- 
row's possibility. The following sentence from 
Tansley's The New Psychology may well be taken 
to heart in this connection: "If the libido is ade- 
quately strong the end is steadily pursued, through 
whatever pain the path may lead."* 

Returning for a moment to the unsuccessful mar- 
riage; the true goal, happiness, is not in sight, and 
if matters are allowed to drift, it may eventually get 
entirely beyond reach. Shall there be an immediate 
rush for the divorce court? By no means. Some- 
time, before the marriage took place, there must 
have been a friendship. There was some sort of 
attractive companionship, or the marriage would not 
have occurred. Intelligence would suggest that 
recourse might be had to this original friendly basis 
for a thorough, frank, sincere review and analysis 
of the whole situation. Understanding is essential 
to peace. Let the discussion be undertaken with the 
definite intention of finding out fully both points of 
view, all causes of dissatisfaction, and wherein the 
chief purposes diverge. Let emotionalism be ruled 
out, and friendliness be the keynote; and let fair 
play on both sides to the point of generosity, be a 
matter of pride. Above all, once the review is un- 
dertaken, let it be carried through completely until 
each side understands the other. It is far more 
than likely that new vision will ensue; and in any 

* Op. cit. 



212 Our Unconscious Mind 

event the situation will be brought to an intelligent 
level. 

Finally, I would pass on to the reader a thought 
given me by a very wise woman — a Russian, whose 
name I am not at liberty to use. It is sound ana- 
lytical psychology, in the highest degree constructive 
when applied: "The trouble with most men and 
women in love is that they do not consider their 
love worth working for. As soon as they have got 
possession of each other, they regard the task as 
finished and themselves as free to take a life-long 
vacation. Looking back to the time when I was 
fifteen, I know that I have loved several men in my 
life, and I know that each love was stronger than the 
preceding. It was because always I made the love 
the center of my life. I gave it my best thought. I 
worked over it. I honored it. I never let myself 
take it for granted. When a man or woman puts 
something else ahead of love, the love goes. I think 
of each day as a chance to serve my husband, and 
I would not have married him if he had not thought 
of each day as a chance to serve me. And so we 
are never in danger of thinking of love as a finished 
thing which can be safely neglected. It enriches our 
whole life because we give it the very best we have." 

IN THE DAY'S WORK 

The subject of true goal and false goal has been 
treated analytically in a preceding chapter so that it 



Application to Everyday Life 213 

need not be elaborated here in that manner, but our 
discussion in this section must nevertheless begin with 
consideration of an objective. To start one's life- 
work solely with the idea of making a living and 
accumulating a competence will not square with our 
conception that the true goal of a human being is 
to be happy. Yet that describes the attitude of the 
average young man or woman when entering the 
world of daily work. Many have ambition; some 
have distinct preferences for a particular line of 
work; a few, particularly those who prepare for 
and enter a trade or profession, have a perfectly 
definite aim; but with the majority "getting a job" 
is merely a necessary response to economic pressure, 
and there is entire readiness to change from one 
occupation to another at any time, if increase of 
wage, or other advantage, may be secured. 

This is not so much pursuit of a false goal as it 
is the general lack of any goal at all except shelter, 
food, clothes, and a little money to spend on pleas- 
ure. Those whose minds are active soon begin to 
look about them with signs of unrest and evidences 
of desire for self-improvement, and so we have 
hundreds of thousands embarking on courses of study 
at night. The significance of this, psychologically, 
is that all those who show willingness to learn, will- 
ingness that is, to sacrifice a part of their leisure in 
studying, should have been taught all through child- 
hood how to select a desired occupation and how 
to prepare for it. 



214 Our Unconscious Mind 

At least one-third of one's life is to be spent in 
work, and this amounts to one-half of the entire 
waking time. To attain the true goal, happiness, 
then, the life-work must be done not in the spirit of 
necessity but in the spirit of pleasurable interest. It 
must be something that is looked forward to each 
morning and left at night with the feeling that it 
will be a pleasure on the morrow. This brings us 
to the very heart of the matter, an intelligent choice 
of work. We cannot too clearly stress that word 
"intelligent." It is not a mark of intelligence, for 
example, to choose a work because it is easy, or 
because it is clean, or because it allows one to wear 
fine clothes, or because it does not spoil the appear- 
ance of one's hands, or because the hours are short. 
These are all derived from a spirit of avoidance. 
They express a negative, not a positive attitude. 

The positive, the intelligent attitude, begins in a 
willingness to estimate, with unsparingly honest 
critique, one's natural abilities and aptitudes. Once 
clearly perceived these should be accepted as the 
basis of development. There are exceptions, of 
course, but these do not invalidate the principle. 
Now the perception of one's abilities puts one in a 
position to compare them with the available work- 
patterns of business and industry in general, and 
from this comparison, frequently made and fairly 
thought of, there will eventually appear definite re- 
actions of liking and disliking. The next step is 
to rid one's mind of the objections which do not 



Application to Everyday Life 215 

really signify, such as those indicated in the above 
described negative attitudes. 

The final step is projecting the imagination 
steadily onto the achievement and development pos- 
sibilities of the line of work which finally stands in 
the mind as the most logical center of ability and 
sustained interest. The best time for this process 
is obviously while one is still at school; but in my 
judgment one should not hesitate, even in the late 
middle age, to learn a new occupation and throw 
one's self into it unhesitatingly, if there comes a clear 
perception that one's present occupation is not in 
the true line of one's interests. The educability of 
a human being, the capacity to adapt mentally, de- 
pends not so much upon years as upon the strength 
of the wishes. When their sons went to the Great 
War, there were many elderly men and women in 
the southern mountains who could neither read 
their letters nor write in reply. They tramped long 
miles to the schools and learned to read and write 
with an ease which far outstripped that of children. 
Three-score-and-ten years proved to be no obstacle 
where the wish was strong enough. 

Just as in mating, then, the thing of first impor- 
tance is a clearly perceived objective. Liking the 
chosen work more and more, finding greater and 
greater interest in perfecting skill and method, calls 
for complete unqualified acceptance of the path, and 
steady training of the imagination. It is at this 
latter point that thousands of men and women fail. 



2i 6 Our Unconscious Mind 

Having chosen a work which they can do well, they 
content themselves with going through the motions. 
Either the imagination is dissipated in fruitless ideas 
of some day doing something else, or in plans for 
getting temporary pleasure, or the imaginative 
faculty is allowed to atrophy from disuse until it no 
longer functions at all except in rudimentary fashion. 
Its vast possibilities are wholly neglected and unre- 
alized. Life becomes an enduring routine instead 
of a vivid experience. 

We must not overlook the potentiality of the en- 
docrines in this connection. No one can work 
happily or live keenly if the vital springs are low. 
It goes without saying that good physical condition 
is a prime essential to a sense of well-being; but too 
many men and women who appear to be in ordi- 
narily good health are nevertheless unable to get 
their indicated horsepower actually applied to the 
business of living, and not infrequently the cause is 
an entirely unsuspected fault in the functions of the 
internally-secreting glands. Lowered activity of 
pituitary, thyroid or adrenals, for example, may 
result not only in slower brain-speed but lack of zest 
in both work and play. I have seen young men and 
young women of admirable physique, excellent risks 
from a life-insurance point of view, who were en- 
tirely unable to apply themselves vigorously to any 
pursuit for more than a short time — and were not 
only wholly in the dark as to the real reason, but 
were very much puzzled and depressed. Examina- 



Application to Everyday Life 217 

tion by a competent expert revealed, in several of 
these instances, a faulty fcod-mobilizing chemistry, 
arising, as it happened, more often from pituitary 
or thyroid insufficiency than from any other source. 
Glandular treatment and corrective psychology 
wrought a complete change in their ability to handle 
life aggressively. The hypo-pituitary or hypo- 
thyroid person cannot expect to have an active, well 
coordinated, highly energized mind and body. The 
basic chemistry is inadequate. That it can now be 
corrected in a majority of cases is the endocrinolo- 
gist's invaluable addition to medical science. 

This brings us to consideration of the causes of 
faulty endocrine functioning. The physiological pos- 
sibilities do not properly come within the scope of 
this book, but psychologically several angles have 
already been suggested in the preceding sections^ 
We saw there, in outline, the pictures of conflicts 
and efforts at adjustment which could be trans- 
formed into physical manifestations. That psychical 
affects can recoil with destructive force upon pitui- 
tary, adrenals and thyroid, was amply observed in 
the cases of war-shock during the recent years of 
catastrophe. The effect, moreover, of intense worry 
in business and other matters of everyday life, is 
well known to be depressing to the thyroid. There 
are excellent reasons for believing that the conflict 
between the Fore-conscious and imperfectly re- 
pressed material in the Unconscious may gradually 
produce equally unfortunate glandular disturbances, 



2i 8 Our Unconscious Mind 

even though the disturbances are less acute. This 
factor should by no means be overlooked. It is a 
pity that there is as yet no authoritative technique 
available whereby one may at least partially analyze 
one's Unconscious independently and uncover the 
major conflicts, if they exist, without the assistance of 
a thoroughly trained analyst. Earnest work is being 
done, however, toward the development of such a 
technique. 

There is not only the endocrine effect to be con- 
sidered in loss of energy through conflict, but also 
a two-fold loss in the mind itself. Generally speak- 
ing, all functions use energy, and the operation of 
the two censorships must be included. The presence 
of a deeply emotionalized, unsquared group of 
affects in the Unconscious, requires strong and per- 
sistent censorship to prevent their breaking through 
and disturbing the Fore-conscious, perhaps to the 
point of utterly defeating its program. Our hysteria 
patient was a case in which the censorship had been 
overworked for years. There are innumerable situ- 
ations which can occur in the early life, any one of 
which, repressed or suppressed to complete forget- 
fulness, may nevertheless have been so highly 
charged with a sense of shock, fear, hurt, forbidden 
desire, defeat, or a mixture of acute emotions, that 
its affects are easily excited and the result is fre- 
quent conflict below the conscious level. Again, 
there is the deeply emotionalized reproach of a bad 
habit, against which one may have struggled inef- 



Application to Everyday Life 219 

fectively for years. In this instance not only will 
there be loss of energy in conflict, but the weakening 
effect of habitual cultural defeat, as well. 

Besides waste in conflict there is, very commonly, 
a "splitting" of energy. Instead of using the 
achievement path (shown in the diagram with the 
section on operating the will) as the main line of 
wish-expression, there is an attempt at equal division 
with the lower path of autistic gratification. The 
wish energy being equally divided, it follows that 
the effective energy will also be split in approxi- 
mately equal proportions and the actual work of 
life will suffer in comparison with the work of 
others, and will yield comparatively little of interest 
or pleasure. The remedy for this is an earnest 
study of the method of will-control outlined in the 
section devoted to that subject, and regular, unweary- 
ing practice until achievement-direction of energy 
becomes a habit. Here again, directed imagination 
will be found invaluable. 

Probably the commonest trouble of all is inability 
to concentrate. A moment's consideration will show 
that what has just been discussed may easily be the 
cause, and many writers on psychology recommend 
intensive practice of exercises such as committing 
passages to memory, doing mental arithmetic, and 
the like. There can be no objection to such mental 
exercises, but we shall do better to remember certain 
mechanisms which have been outlined in preceding 
chapters and avail ourselves of the easier rather 



220 Our Unconscious Mind 

than the more difficult methods of correction. In 
the presence of a strong enough wish we have no 
difficulty with concentration. The desire to escape, 
if the building is afire, will be quite sufficient to 
keep the attention from wandering to last night's 
party or to one that is being planned for next week. 
The trouble is that achievement wishes are usually 
associated with the idea of work, and the word 
"work" has become, during childhood, loaded with 
unpleasant associations of effort, self-denial, con- 
finement, etc. — the negation of play and pleasure — 
until our actual wish, recognized or not, is to be 
free from the irksome necessity of spending all our 
days in toil. I say the "actual wish," meaning, of 
course, the underlying, instinctive affect. 

Successful adjustment requires the development 
and energizing of achievement (cultural) wishes to 
a point where they supersede and replace the instinct- 
ive one. Concentration upon the necessary effort- 
responses will rise steadily with the strength of the 
wishes. Ego Maximation is the strongest rein- 
forcement. Throughout the entire process, Coue's 
law of reversed effort may well be kept in mind. 
"The harder I try to correct my faults, the harder 
I find it to do so!" Naturally, since the force of 
attention is inevitably directed toward the faults 
themselves as well as toward correction. But now 
suppose that, instead, the idea of the faults is per- 
sistently replaced with a totally different idea — 
the idea, for example, of being the most cheerful, 



Application to Everyday Life 221 

rapid and efficient worker in the entire organization; 
and suppose that this idea is given the full power 
of imagination, morning, noon and night. It gradu- 
ally develops into a dominant, indeed almost an ob- 
sessional wish. Concentration on the work will 
grow with the wish, just as surely as it will center 
around the wish to escape, if the building is afire. 
This sort of concentration, that which follows a 
strong wish, is far easier and less fatiguing than the 
sort which attends the knitted brow, the sort which 
is summoned by an effort of will. In addressing 
lecture audiences I find it invaluable at the outset 
to suggest relaxation. If what I have for them then 
stimulates their interest and imagination, there not 
only need be no concern about concentration, but at 
the end of the talk neither they nor I will be sensibly 
fatigued. 

This context leads naturally to the subject of 
applied autosuggestion. Without undertaking here 
the presentation, impossible in the scope of this 
book, of the technique which is being so successfully 
taught at Nancy and at Geneva, it will be practicable 
to outline at least two simple ways of applying it 
which can be used with valuable results even though 
only the most rudimentary methods are employed. 
One is implanting in the mind an advance outline 
of the day. The other is giving the mind something 
constructive to work on during sleep. Several years 
ago, I heard a successful executive tell a group of 
young men how he did his work, and included in the 



222 Our Unconscious Mind 

talk was the advice to prepare at the close of each 
day's business a list of the ten most important things 
for the next day. To this I would add, — run them 
over in the mind just before going to sleep, not 
thoughtfully, or with elaboration of detail, but with 
the sure knowledge that the deeper centers of the 
mind are capable of viewing them constructively 
even though conscious attention is surrendered in 
sleep. Then, if there is a particular problem which 
seems difficult of solution, review its features lightly 
as a last game for the imaginative Unconscious to 
play at during the night. Do not be discouraged if 
no immediate results are apparent. Remember that 
fiction, poetry, musical composition, inventions, in- 
numerable ideas, spring from the Unconscious, 
often in forms that give evidence of the highest con- 
structive elaboration. Give your Unconscious a 
chance. Give it the material, and stimulate it with 
a keenly dwelt-on wish along frank Ego Maxima- 
tion lines. It is a habit which, if persisted in, will 
soon or later present you with some very valuable 
ideas when you least expect them. 

The Unconscious, we remember, can expend 
energy without perceptible fatigue. The Fore-con- 
scious and Conscious, however, have working limits 
which may not be disregarded without either a fall- 
ing off in the quality of work or a depletion of vital 
reserves. The day's work, therefore, should in the 
case of the average man or woman be dismissed 
absolutely when the business day is finished. 



Application to Everyday Life 223 

I have known several organizations in which cer- 
tain of the executives were filled with the idea that 
instilling "pep" into the staff depended upon over- 
stimulating themselves with the caffeine in strong 
coffee, thumping the lunch table, and declaring that, 
"Every man in this organization has got to eat and 
sleep our proposition day and night" ! An excellent 
way to implant affects of fatigue, fear, and resist- 
ance; but a poor way to make men and women love 
their work. Suppose, instead, that the executive 
were to say to his men, "Look here, fellows, I'm 
going to give a Monday off, and two theatre tickets, 
to the man who first discovers something about our 
product that I don't know. If it's a good selling 
point, I'll give him four tickets instead of two. If 
it's a fault and he can show a way to correct it I'll 
raise his salary!" And suppose he keeps a watch- 
ful eye on his staff to detect signs of overwork, 
over-thinking, worry, ill health, and makes both men 
and women feel that he is concerned about their 
welfare as human beings instead of only as cogs in 
the machinery. Not only will the results be better, 
but they will be cumulative. Getting the best out 
of a human being begins with understanding how 
a mind functions below the conscious level. 

Going to one's work in the morning is rarely 
done with mental preparation. Herein lies a major 
cause of lost motion and lack of pleasure in produc- 
tion. The spirit of the day is of tremendous im- 
portance, and a few minutes given to it each morn- 



224 Our Unconscious Mind 

ing while preparing for the day will pay extraordi- 
nary dividends in accomplishment and happiness. 
Let a young man or young woman, immediately on 
rising, and while dressing, run over in the mind 
some such thought as this, "This day, like every 
day, is full of opportunity to make people realize 
the sincerity of my purposes, the cheerfulness of my 
disposition, the willingness and value of my service. 
I shall carry with me the sense of energy, poise, 
courage, resourcefulness and good cheer. I need not 
be self-conscious about it because the qualities make 
themselves felt without the need of effort, provided 
I feel them myself. Throughout the day I am going 
to make people glad I am in the world." And just 
before entering office or factory let the same thought 
recur, not necessarily repeated in full, but as a defi- 
nite and complete idea. If this is made a daily 
habit, there will soon be the realization of increased 
personal power and of a clear response from one's 
associates. 

The value to an organization, of beginning each 
day in this spirit, is incalculable. It is effective from 
the first moment at desk, bench, or machine. Its 
quality is apparent in face, voice and manner. 
Moreover, the quality gets into the work itself, im- 
proves it, speeds it, makes it go forward with new 
life. The perceptible effect upon the relation with 
one's fellow workers is not long in following. There 
will be less of the personal attitude, less fruitless 
and futile emotionalizing of those contacts which 



Application to Everyday Life 225 

have not been agreeable and harmonious. There is 
nothing more wasteful in the business day than the 
displacement of energy in acrimonious or combative 
encounters; just as there is nothing more annoying 
to a busy executive than to have an assistant whose 
chief unconscious concern is to direct his attention 
to herself and her affairs. In my judgment an or- 
ganization regardless of the value of the service 
rendered should lose no time, in ridding itself of the 
person who will not fit, impersonally, into the team; 
provided that the fault has been pointed out and 
there has been no perceptible effort at correction. 
The spirit of the day can be disrupted over and 
over again by a single individual who is preoccupied 
with self, unable to get the business-like, impersonal 
attitude; or who is ever ready to see a fancied slight 
and resent it. 

Contrasted with the spirit of the day, the spirit 
of the organization comes first from head-quarters 
and then from department executives and foremen. 
I once heard a famous orchestra conductor say, "I 
must have the score in my head — not my head in the 
score. I should know my music well enough so that 
I can give my eyes to my men. A conductor with 
his head in the score is a poor conductor; he will 
soon find his men have their heads in the score too 
— and have forgotten all about him!" Department 
heads, indeed the Big Boss himself, may well take 
this to heart. A president who forgets his men will 
soon find they have forgotten him, and that his 



226 Our Unconscious Mind 

power to influence them is gone. The sales manager 
who thinks always of sales and seldom of salesmen, 
is a "poor conductor." A foreman who thinks only 
of production and never of the producers, may be 
liked by the superintendent, but he will not be liked 
by his men, and will soon lose his most effective grip 
on them. 

A department head who looks after the welfare 
and comfort of his workers is going to be the hard- 
est-worked man in the department; and this is quite 
right; he ought to be. His capacity to think about 
others, as well as for others, should be one of his 
chief qualifications. Now what has been said about 
an employee and the spirit of the day, holds equally 
true for every leader of others, from the president 
down; and let no man think because he has reached 
high office that he is beyond the value of directing 
his mental attitude by habitual, carefully planned 
suggestion. But the ability of an executive to inspire 
his organization resides not alone in the effect of his 
appearance, voice and manner. It includes his 
capacity to make them feel his interest in their wel- 
fare and in their progress. There are two large 
concerns in New York which are directed, respect- 
ively, by two men who hold exactly opposed views 
in this connection. 

The president of one keeps himself aloof from 
the personnel, regards the employees as necessary 
evils, considers that most of them are overpaid 
ingrates, never visits a factory unless there is new 



Application to Everyday Life 227 

building construction going on, and, if he has occa- 
sion to go to any retail department, recognizes only 
the head. The president of the other appears in 
every manufacturing division at least once a month 
and in every operating division at least once a week; 
he recognizes every employee on these visits of in- 
spection, with a smile and nod or a word of greet- 
ing; he notes, and has ameliorated, any bad working 
conditions; he has reported to him every case of 
serious illness and directs that adequate care be 
assured; if an employee is getting married there will 
be flowers and a card from the president with some 
words of congratulation; in brief, he has succeeded 
in making the whole force think of him as one who 
cares as much for human beings as he does for mak- 
ing money. The comparative results are very inter- 
esting. The first company has lost enough good 
men to operate an entire organization. Its em- 
ployees are its worst advertisers. It has had extra- 
ordinary commercial opportunities, it is conserva- 
tively capitalized, yet in twenty years it has never 
earned a dividend on its common stock. The second 
company, with far less favorable conditions, has 
grown from nothing to a business of six millions a 
year, with net profits which have exceeded half a 
million per annum, or fifty per cent on the capital- 
ization. 

In conclusion, it may be helpful to consider how 
best to meet the inevitable occurrence of worry and 
fear. It is idle to say, "Don't worry," unless some 



228 Our Unconscious Mind 

way can be indicated which will make the injunction 
possible of performance. Worry and fear are for 
practical purposes nearly synonymous. To worry 
is to fear something and to think about it obsession- 
ally — to allow it to dominate the mental activity. 
The man who admits that he is worried, and yet 
declares that he is not afraid, has uttered a paradox. 
As a matter of fact he might better recognize the 
associated fear as an effort of Nature, through 
stimulation of the adrenals, to prepare him for the 
most effective fight against the situation which he 
dreads. The trouble is that the situation, although 
foreseen as possible cannot be promptly met and 
dealt with, and the prolonged waiting, with the 
system kept in partial response to fear, finally lowers 
the vitality of mind and body. The strain, certainly 
affecting the adrenals and the thyroid, is probably 
communicated to all the endocrine glands and upsets 
the entire food-mobilizing chemistry as well as the 
tone of the sympathetic nerve system. By the time 
the trouble actually arrives, if it ever does, the 
victim of worry is in anything but the best condition 
for meeting it. 

The first step in the line of correction is to make 
a thorough analysis of the cause of the worry; then 
set it down on paper, get advice if advice is needed, 
allot to the matter sufficient time to insure thorough 
consideration, map out a provisional line of action, 
write it down, put the paper in a drawer, and defi- 
nitely refuse to refer to it again unless the crisis 



Application to Everyday Life 229 

arrives. If it should arrive, you have ready at hand 
an analysis and decision, made when you were abso- 
lutely at your best. Meantime, knowing that the 
matter has had your clearest and best thought, the 
next step is to rule it out of the mind as completely as 
any other finished item of the day's work. This can be 
done both by positive autosuggestion and by instant 
replacement by another idea (to which is given the 
full force of imagination), the moment any sign of 
the worry appears. Once worry is recognized for 
what it is — fear — the cultural wish to be courageous 
is a powerful reinforcement for both autosuggestion 
and replacement. In these circumstances, as always, 
there is a sure reward for calm, unflinching, smiling 
courage; and not the least of the reward is the in- 
ward sense of growing poise and power. 



CHAPTER VII 

MAKING A CONTENTED HUMAN GROUP 

CONSIDERING the vast amount of effort which 
has been put forth in philosophical thought 
and philosophical writing, the relatively slight im- 
pression evidenced in human conduct would be 
amazing if one did not remember that the great 
majority of human beings have been only slightly, 
if at all, reached by the profound abstractions and 
involved reasonings of the savants, and that nearly 
all of the various systems were founded in the fallacy 
that a human being is a priori governed by reason. 
Not to go behind the records of authenticated his- 
tory, it is safe to say that for at least four thousand 
years the world's thinkers have been trying to map 
out a route which would both insure content, and be 
practicable in terms of the major groups. Perhaps 
their failure to catch the ear and hold the attention 
of the masses has been in part due to a certain 
Brahministic contempt of some lofty minds for lesser 
ones. Possibly, too, if their logic had been less 
coldly pure, if they had more sympathetically and 
comprehendingly analyzed the methods and teach- 
ings of a certain Nazarene, they might more inti- 
mately have reached and more effectively have in- 

230 



Making a Contented Human Group 231 

fluenced the minds of those whom they wished to 
instruct. The development of their cultural reason- 
ing hid from them more and more the only key 
which can unlock the doors of rapid progress toward 
solution of the problems of human relationship. 
This key is the fact that men, women and children, 
are not essentially governed by reason hut by instinct 
and emotion. 

Resist it who will, the truth continues to prevail. 
Behavioristic psychology demonstrates the fact, and 
analytical psychology has laid bare the reasons. 
Tansley, the distinguished Cambridge biologist, 
states the situation admirably when he says, in The 
New Psychology, ". . . man is not primarily a 
rational being, though it is by the use of reason 
alone that he can attain in any degree to the mastery 
of his destiny. He still relies on reason only where 
its usefulness is forcibly and immediately brought 
home to him. . . . the human mind is built up of a 
bundle of instincts, which, it is true, are kept in 
check, and therefore often masked, by their inter- 
actions, but which are just as much alive and just as 
vigorous as they were in the days of Neolithic man, 
which indeed furnish the sole driving power that 
enables man to do what he does do, good or bad."* 

Instead of abstract thinkers and their ethical 
systems, the need, all along, has been for patient 
research workers who would search out the springs 
of action in the individual, accept and present the 

* Op. cit. 



232 Our Unconscious Mind 

truth as they found it — regardless of whether or 
not it flattered their concept of themselves as human 
beings — and suggest ways in which progress might 
be made with relation to the facts rather than in 
spite of them. This happens to be exactly the 
process that is followed in all the physical sciences. 
The ends of constructive progress follow the means 
of empirical or experimental discovery. 

Psychologically, the human race has passed 
through two main phases to arrive at a third, from 
which it seems about to begin moving toward a 
fourth. The first of these, presumably, was indi- 
vidualism; which gave way to the second, the life 
of the herd and submission of individual will to 
tribal law, only because of necessity and later the 
gradual realization that the sacrifice of some of the 
individual wishes was worth while because of the 
greater security and comfort. Gradually, as the 
leadership of the herds became more and more unfit, 
more and more selfish, oppressive, and unresponsive 
to the needs and wishes of the mass, there was a 
growing revolt, a reversion toward individualism 
again. This reached its highest expression in the 
American Republic (I use the past tense because 
individual liberty in America is already being suc- 
cessfully repressed by sections of the herd). Its 
antithesis has appeared already in the Bolshevik 
experiment in Russia, psychologically the very 
apotheosis of reaction, since it reduces the individual 
to a mere tool of the state. 



Making a Contented Human Group 233 

The trend of our American group toward a more 
closely knit and more highly cooperative herd spirit, 
with certain inevitably attendant losses of individual 
freedom of action, is likely to develop rapidly, for 
we are an active-minded, energetic people, and the 
possibilities of unsafe precipitateness in this move- 
ment arise, in my opinion, because our leadership is 
failing both in understanding and in purpose. The 
reasons for this opinion, with a suggested course 
of action, will appear in the following pages. 

The war of the American Revolution was a war 
for freedom of the individual. At the root of 
the Civil War was the same idea. (This is 
with reference not to the manifest causes, but 
to the latent ones.) With the close of 
that war, and the development of industrialism, 
began the rapid immigration from all the races of 
Europe. Here on this soil they got together, 
drawn partly by the prospect of earning more money 
and partly by the concept of greater personal liberty, 
to work together as one group. But transplanting 
an adult to new surroundings does not give him a 
new psychology. His instincts, to be sure, are part 
of the instincts of the entire race, but his affect- 
images and response-models, his entire mental back- 
ground, are those peculiar to his own people, their 
habits of thought, customs, religion, taboos, laws, 
ideas of government. 

Among the groups which we absorbed, or rather 
which are now in process of absorption, were the 



234 O ur Unconscious Mind 

psychology of the Irish, the French, the Scotch, the 
Hebrews, the Germans, the Russians, the Italians, 
the Poles, the Hungarians, the Austrians, the Scan- 
dinavians, the Dutch, the Swiss, and the Greeks. 
Differing widely among themselves, they differed 
also with the customs and ideas of the country to 
which they came; and that country had lost in the 
Civil War no little proportion of its most virile 
young minds which, still deeply impregnated with 
the ideals of the forefathers, might have been a 
priceless leaven had they survived. 

Such a mixture, of entirely indigestible propor- 
tions, could only result, speaking in terms of devel- 
opmental national psychology, in reaching a sort of 
dead center. This describes our situation at the 
outbreak of the recent Great War. We were not 
yet welded together as a nation; we were of one 
country but not of one blood; and we had not yet 
entered into that bond of which the sacrament is 
shedding blood for each other in a common cause. 
What the war did for America in this respect is be- 
yond the power of estimate. We went into it a col- 
lection of friendly races ; we came out of it a nation. 
Whatever may survive of the old habits of racial 
designation, we are now essentially one people, and 
our herd consciousness has at last a chance to de- 
velop homogeneously. The splendid young millions 
who went out to fight, suffer, play, laugh, sing, and 
— some of them — to die, side by side, will, for the 
greater part, never again see in each other anything 
but a fellow American. 



Making a Contented Human Group 235 

And now the thing that is to signify in the inevi- 
table swing forward, is a new psychology, a new set 
of ideas, ideals and aspirations. We need to be- 
come thoroughly conscious of that fact and to let it 
develop within us a new imagination. For my own 
part I stand not only for class consciousness but, if 
need be, for a class war. The class that I want 
to be unceasingly conscious of is the whole American 
people, and the class on which I hope they will never 
hesitate to make war is any class whatever, high or 
low, rich or poor, numerous or few, which stands 
in the way of the growth of a constructive, forward 
looking American national psychology. In that 
sense I believe in class consciousness and class war, 
and intend to preach both. This aspect of their 
favorite slogan would disappoint certain militant 
minds of the radical wing, but it happens that the 
growth of constructive Americanism is important to 
more people at present than trying out various 
radical experiments. 

Moreover, it is important not alone to Americans 
but to the entire world. Man's ability to cooperate 
does not leap forward centuries in a single bound. 
Two things stand always in the way. The first is 
the natural inertia of the average mind, with its 
closely associated reluctance and caution when far- 
reaching changes are proposed; the second is the 
instinctive tendency to put self first and distrust any 
surrender of hard-won individualism. We have 
only to observe throughout history the slow progress 
from tribe to nation, to realize that each step in the 



236 Our Unconscious Mind 

enlargement of cooperative herd consciousness and 
spirit is necessarily slow. The herd can move 
effectively only as fast as its preponderant mass. 
Not until a people has "got together" sufficiently to 
solve the problems of human relationship within 
its own borders can that nation reasonably be ex- 
pected to broaden its effective group consciousness 
to the point needed for a successful "world state." 
And this precisely is what stands in the way of im- 
mediately realizing the ideal of the League of 
Nations. The idea of such a confederation appeals 
readily enough to the reason, but the herd instinct 
is not yet ready for the responsibilities and conse- 
quences inevitably entailed. In this connection the 
following excerpts from Tansley's chapter on Par- 
tial Herds And Universal Herd* will be of special 
interest: "Before there can exist an international 
life which has any reality, and particularly before it 
can correspond with a sense of world solidarity in 
the minds of the common people, and thus create a 
complex of the world herd which alone can give 
solid support to international organization, a very 
long road will have to be traversed. When disap- 
pointment is expressed because an effective League 
of Nations cannot be brought into existence in the 
course of a few months, it is forgotten that we are 
dealing with the whole of the last stage of social 
evolution — a tremendous affair which, even with the 
increased rate of development we may fairly expect, 

* Contained in The New Psychology, previously cited. 



Making a Contented Human Group 237 

cannot possibly be consummated in a few months or 
in a few years. . . . But there is certainly no reason 
to despair. . . . The feet of the world's leading 
statesmen have been definitely set on that road, the 
will of a large part of the peoples of the world is 
towards that goal. . . . The work of the future is 
the creation of more and more international life and 
organization, until the world herd becomes a reality 
in the minds of the peoples. Along with this must 
go the improvement of the national organisms which 
will form the constituent parts of the world or- 
ganism, for it is clearly on these lines, not on the 
lines of a premature and artificial cosmopolitanism, 
that solid progress will be realized." 

However unacceptable the foregoing may be to 
proponents of immediate and complete internation- 
alism, the nature of psychological evolution is not 
likely to change because of their wishes. They are 
quite right to preach their doctrine; indeed it is to 
be hoped they will do so unceasingly, in season and 
out of season; and let them not fear that their 
effort is lost merely because it does not result in im- 
mediate realization. They are doing a tremendous 
service, sowing seed which will eventually bear fruit 
of the utmost value to the human race. Meantime 
let them not forget that the most rapid progress 
toward their ideal will accrue from the thorough 
development of American national spirit to higher 
and higher levels of functioning. The American 
group, from the nature of its component parts is 



238 Our Unconscious Mind 

peculiarly adapted to understanding other peoples 
of the world, and should therefore eventually lead 
in international cooperation. 

When we think of ourselves as a complete group, 
we must realize that this spirit is as yet little more 
than new-born. Sectional consciousness, a "partial 
herd" spirit, is still dominant and is the most out- 
standing feature of our national Congress at Wash- 
ington. The worker in a New England textile mill 
is aware that there is such a thing as a California 
fruit grower, but he has little knowledge of, hence 
little sympathy with, the fruit grower's problems. 
What concerns him chiefly is the labor situation and 
cost of living in Lowell, Manchester, Providence, 
or wherever he happens to live. And if the situa- 
tion is viewed in reverse it presents a similar aspect. 
Again, the Kansas farmer views a New York busi- 
ness man with little sense of fellowship or common 
interest; Michigan thinks of Florida chiefly as a 
region of alligators, Palm Beach suits, and occa- 
sional lynchings ; the Pittsburgh steel worker wonders 
vaguely whether the Dakota brand of socialism 
would get shorter hours and more pay for puddlers. 
And for the most part the representatives they all 
send to Washington have a far keener eye for local 
advantage than for national betterment. They have 
to have, or they could not hold their office against 
an opponent who was shrewd enough to keep sound- 
ing the local key. 

This points to a vicious circle; the local influence 



Making a Contented Human Group 239 

upon the legislator's mind, and the legislator in turn 
stimulating the local consciousness. Here and there 
a man turns up who has both vision and courage 
for leadership, and even though he may from time 
to time be defeated, the country is the richer for his 
service. Where, we may well inquire, is the tan- 
gental force to come from, the force which will 
start the lines of local action in something other than 
a circular form? 

The answer may be found partly within the circle 
itself; the newspaper, the school-house, the pulpit 
and the leading citizen. All four of these stand for 
a partial herd, a section within the section. The 
newspaper is mentioned first, because at present the 
American people is ruled by the newspaper more 
than by any other force. It looks to its newspapers 
as the springs of its mental activity. It takes its 
constructive thought, its opinions, in predigested 
doses, morning and night. It develops national 
feeling and national viewpoint to the extent that 
these are projected in the editorial columns, and in 
pretty much the same terms. Who does not hear, 
in the course of a week, man after man and woman 
after woman saying "I think so and so," when actu- 
ally the so-called "thought" is merely a repetition 
of something which has appeared in the local press? 
Now this is not objectionable. It merely puts upon 
the shoulders of the editor a responsibility for lead- 
ership which very properly belongs there. But for 
the most part the newspaper, being a commercial 



240 Our Unconscious Mind 

enterprise, is itself a dependent. It can exist only 
if it is made interesting and if the merchants of the 
city are willing it should go on. There must be 
always a working compromise with one or more 
sections of the community. Similarly, both school 
and church are under a certain degree of control 
by those who in virtue of their economic power are 
able to sway, directly or indirectly, the progress of 
the local group. 

This brings us to our leadership. The real leader 
is not necessarily the man who carries the baton of 
office at the head of the procession and acknowl- 
edges the salutes or dodges the epithets. He is quite 
as likely to be one who sits at a desk and never 
thinks of himself as a leader at all but merely as 
the head of a business which is essential to the com- 
munity's prosperity. It is precisely in this lack of 
consciousness of leadership-responsibility that our 
greatest danger lies. 

Fifteen years ago the American people were in- 
volved in a determined struggle to free themselves 
from a leadership which had become intolerable. 
Both national and local governments had, some 
years before, come under the dominance of a group 
of business adventurers whose money-madness out- 
stripped the world's most advanced previous records 
for personal greed. From the city ward to the 
floor of the Senate, they picked their tools; if laws 
stood in their way they evaded them, had new ones 
made, or openly defied them; but ferocious and un- 



Making a Contented Human Group 241 

scrupulous as their actions and motives were, essen- 
tially heartless and cruel as those of any Hun who 
sank a hospital ship, this leadership had at least 
one virtue — that of actually leading. Those leaders 
steered the ship, maintained headway, and avoided 
rocks. Their course, however, was so opposed to 
the sense of fairness within the herd that eventually 
it had to be abandoned. 

As a not unnatural consequence, we have been left 
in the peculiar position of having no dominant lead- 
ership at all. Merciless exposure, some legal pun- 
ishments, and the overwhelming condemnation of 
public opinion, left the older capitalistic methods in 
thoroughly bad odor, to say nothing of the fact 
that they became definitely dangerous. Big business, 
caught in the whirlwind of its own making, cried 
quits; and its more far-seeing directors set them- 
selves to the task of harmonizing with the law of the 
group. Meantime the younger generation of busi- 
ness men, to whom the leadership should have de- 
scended, were left without a serviceable model of 
action; and they more and more concentrated atten- 
tion on their own affairs, leaving politics to politi- 
cians. The leadership should have descended to 
them because, in a capitalist state, capital must 
accept full responsibility for the welfare of the 
group. 

This is basic. If capital shirks its responsibility 
there are leaders of a far different class who are 
neither afraid, nor hesitant in pressing their per- 



242 Our Unconscious Mind 

suasion. The herd cannot exist as a herd without 
leaders. If capital is too busy, or is too selfish, or 
will not lead constructively, wisely, and cooperat- 
ively, capital will find itself replaced. In my 
opinion, such replacement would result in unimagi- 
nable decay and calamity, because the American herd 
is far from having developed as yet an individual 
psychology which could make a social state success- 
ful. But the fact that an experiment in socialism 
would be foredoomed to failure does not make it 
any the less to be avoided. 

Let us consider for a moment the recent view of 
H. G. Wells, whose mind is probably better equili- 
brated on the problem than that of any other pres- 
ent-day writer. In his Outline of History* he says: 
"The gist of the socialist proposal is that land and 
all the natural means of production, transit and dis- 
tribution shall be collectively owned. Within these 
limits there is to be much free private ownership 
and unrestricted personal freedom. Given efficient 
administration, it may be doubted whether many 
people nowadays would dispute that proposal. But 
socialism has never gone on to a thorough exami- 
nation of that proviso for efficient administra- 
tion. . . . 

"Again what community is it that is to own the 
collective property; is it to be the sovereign, or the 
township, or the county, or the nation or mankind? 

* An Outline of History, by H. G. Wells. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. Quoted by permission of the publishers and author. 
Copyright 1920, 1921, by H. G. Wells. 



Making a Contented Human Group 243 

Socialism makes no clear answer. ... If socialists 
object to a single individual claiming a mine or a 
great stretch of agricultural land as his own indi- 
vidual property, with a right to refuse or barter its 
use and profit to others, why should they permit a 
single nation to monopolize the mines or trade 
routes or natural wealth of the territories in which 
it lives, against the rest of mankind? . . . And 
unless human life is to become a mass meeting of 
the race in permanent session, how is the community 
to appoint its officers to carry on its collective 
concerns ? 

"This question of administration, the sound and 
adequate bar to much immediate socialization, brings 
us to the still largely unsolved problem of human 
association. How are we to secure the best direction 
of human affairs and the maximum of willing coop- 
eration with that direction? This is ultimately a 
complex problem in Psychology, but it is absurd 
to pretend that it is an insoluble one. There must 
be a definite best, which is the right thing, in these 
matters. . . . The problem in its completeness 
involves the working out of the best methods in the 
following departments, and their complete correla- 
tion :- 

U (I) Education. — The preparation of the indi- 
vidual for an understanding and willing cooperation 
in the world's affairs. 

"(II) Information. — The continual truthful pres- 
entation of public affairs to the individual for his 



244 ° UR Unconscious Mind 

judgment and approval. Closely connected with this 
need for current information is the codification of 
the law, the problem of keeping the law plain, clear, 
and accessible to all. 

"(Ill) Representation. — The selection of repre- 
sentatives and agents to act in the collective interest 
in harmony with the general will based on this edu- 
cation and plain information. 

"(IV) The Executive. — The appointment of ex- 
ecutive agents and the maintenance of means for 
keeping them responsible to the community, without 
at the same time hampering intelligent initiative. 

"(V) Thought and Research. — The systematic 
criticism of affairs and laws to provide data for 
popular judgments, and through those judgments to 
ensure the secular improvement of the human or- 
ganization." 

This program is reasonable, and is wholly in line 
with the ideals of patriotic, forward-looking Ameri- 
cans. Moreover, there is in the ranks of American 
business sufficient intelligence, of the most highly 
energized sort, to set it on the way toward realiza- 
tion, if the business men will only take the initiative 
which is their rightful responsibility. Capital's op- 
portunity is literally staring it in the face. Every 
item of the necessary machinery is ready to hand 
without the need of a day's preparation. The 
Chambers of Commerce, and the Rotary Clubs, are 
well organized and capable of working together — 
not to mention a dozen other nation-wide associa- 
tions of essentially the same class of membership. 



Making a Contented Human Group 245 

The newspapers, for the most part, would cooperate 
gladly. But more even than organization, is needed 
the individual consciousness and acceptance of the 
opportunity. 

In the hurried activity of our business life, the 
tendency is to organize the individual out of exist- 
ence. The rapid discharge of a multiplicity of 
affairs has given rise to the custom of appointing 
committees, deputizing them to discharge certain 
functions, and then dismissing the business until they 
report. This frees the main body from all interim 
consideration of the matters deputed. That alone 
will not serve for the purposes here being outlined. 
Each and every man must constitute himself a com- 
mittee of one, with power to think constructively 
and to talk his thoughts out with his wife, his 
friends, and anyone anywhere who will listen. He 
should regard himself as a life member of an Ameri- 
can Institute of Public Service. 

In what way, it may well be asked, should this 
program of bettering American life begin? There 
is no better way than hitting, as a famous pugilist 
once put it, from where the hand is. Let progress 
begin in the home community, and let its first move 
be the determination that that community shall have 
healthful surroundings, material comfort and clean 
government. Suppose the business men of a given 
city have had the energy and intelligence to create 
one hundred million dollars' worth of manufactur- 
ing enterprises within its borders; and suppose these 
men should put their heads together and firmly 



246 Our Unconscious Mind 

decide that within five years there should not be a 
slum in their city, or a man, woman, or child who 
was without adequate shelter, food and clothes. It 
would take a daring gambler to wager against their 
having the necessary brains to achieve what they had 
willed to achieve. And suppose such a group 
pledged itself to the same purpose in every Ameri- 
can city. How long would it be before the "apostle 
of destruction" found himself preaching to empty 
street corners? The vast majority of the people in 
this country is essentially cheerful and basically fair- 
minded. Once convinced of the honesty and faith- 
fulness of his leader, the average man, as the war 
proved, will follow that leader "through hell and 
laugh at the hot weather." I repeat, Capital's op- 
portunity is at its very door. But it will not wait 
forever. I have several times within the past year 
discussed with business men a simple, practical plan 
for putting the movement in operation, and their 
response has led me to believe that neither the spirit 
nor the flesh is weak. But much wider discussion is 
needed to get prompt action. 

So much for leadership. And what part can we 
the people play in our own progress? Theoretically 
whatever we want under our system of government 
we can get; but actually we do not get it, and our 
tendency is to criticise the government, which we 
usually speak of vaguely as "they" and blame 
for everything from the high cost of living to 
a leak in the roof. We sometimes listen with a 
sort of half belief to our radical friends who ex- 



Making a Contented Human Group 247 

citedly declare that the whole trouble arises from a 
certain type of evil-minded capitalists whose chief 
aim in life is to keep us under their heels. We 
know — and so do they — that this is not really the 
case, but it helps us to get rid of a certain uneasy 
consciousness that we are not discharging as we 
ought to our own duties of citizenship. 

The fact is we have neither made up our minds 
as a cooperative body as to just what we want, nor 
reached the point where we are willing to give any 
appreciable part of our time or thought to getting 
it. We don't want to be bothered. We would 
rather "let George do it." Each one of us, within 
his limits, is to a certain extent capable of leading, 
but each of us to a much larger extent would rather 
be led than do the leading. It does not matter 
whether we consider this from the attitude of the 
man who would rather spend election day at the 
golf club than in helping to elect honest, capable 
officials, or the attitude of the woman who prefers 
a bridge game to a mother's meeting, or the attitude 
of the man who would not be willing to give up the 
pinochle club for a neighborhood welfare council 
one evening a week without fail. The fact is always 
there, that not ten per cent, probably not five per 
cent of us, are willing to give a regular and effective 
part of our energy to the conduct of the community 
business and finding ways to improve conditions. 
Moreover, as soon as something progressive is un- 
dertaken and we do by some chance bestir ourselves, 
at the first defeat or disagreement we get disgusted 



248 Our Unconscious Mind 

with people's stupidity and wash our hands of 
further participation in public affairs. Suppose our 
forefathers had exhibited the same attitude when 
they were pushing out the frontiers of civilization — 
how far would they have got? They did a big job, 
did it with courage, patience, industry, and unfailing 
determination. They built an empire because of 
these whole-man and whole-woman qualities. Shall 
we of this generation dishonor them by shirking the 
equally important job of making ourselves a people 
worthy of the empire? 

We can get what we want as soon as we want it 
hard enough to translate the wish into action. In 
reduction of crime, for example, whenever we the 
people get sick of being held up on the street by 
thugs and shot down, or beaten over the head, we 
can put a stop to it; but we have first to become 
personally, individually, every one of us, thoroughly 
sick of it. As long as it does not touch us directly, 
or any of our friends, we feel vaguely upset about 
it, we more or less curse the police and the city gov- 
ernment, but we do not feel strongly enough about 
it to organize ourselves effectively and make it our 
business to see that every perpetrator of a crime of 
violence shall be segregated from organized society 
to accomplish that result. The criminal preys on 
society because he has a first-class chance to get 
away with the spoils and retain his freedom. The 
only thing which will restrain him is the knowledge 
that he will be hunted down until he is caught if the 
hunt has to cover half the world. His type of mind 



Making a Contented Human Group 249 

is peculiarly susceptible to the influence of prolonged 
fear. As soon as he knows that his chances of ulti- 
mate prison or death are ninety-five in a hundred, 
we shall see crimes of violence dwindling toward the 
vanishing point; never quite to reach that point but 
approaching it to a highly beneficial degree. We 
can get that result in a comparatively short time, 
whenever we really determine as one body that we 
will have it. 

Similarly, our educational system will respond to 
our collective wishes when those wishes become 
strong enough. We can have our children taught, 
and brought up, with no such thing as needless fear 
in their education. Fear has its uses; it can be a 
valuable reminder which assists in self restraint. 
But it has far more abuses than uses, and its after 
effects may be disastrous, particularly to the sensi- 
tive child with a neurotic constitution. We can turn 
our neighborhood moving-picture theatres into places 
of education, constructive suggestion, and community 
welfare, as well as of entertainment; we can remove 
from them entirely the elements of cheap frivolity, 
lewd suggestion and criminal heroics, with which so 
many of them deck their portals. Assuredly we 
shall do the latter when we have become sufficiently 
disgusted with the sight of our young daughters 
smearing themselves with paint and powder and 
taking a popular "vamp" as their model of conduct. 
We can have efficient local government as soon as 
we decide that public service instead of wealth shall 
be the route to honor and public esteem ; and as soon 



250 Our Unconscious Mind 

as our popular will decrees that making a govern- 
ment official the target of partisan abuse shall cease. 
Public office in America has become discredited quite 
as much through unlicensed mud-slinging as it has 
through misconduct of men in office. 

Let us take a series of sketches, in which are out- 
lined certain psychological formative factors, and 
compare them with results. Perhaps in no other 
way could we get so graphic an idea of where we 
stand today and the sort of changes which we need 
to institute. 

GERMANY 

Formative Factors: — I quote the following from 
Wells as being an admirable statement of what pro- 
duced the Prussian spirit which made itself so hide- 
ously felt in the late war. 

". . . the student of universal history should give 
some thought to the mental growth of the genera- 
tion of Germans educated since the victories of 1 87 1 . 
They were naturally inflated by their sweeping un- 
qualified successes in war, and by their rapid prog- 
ress from comparative poverty to wealth. It 
would have been more than human in them if they 
had not given way to some excesses of patriotic 
vanity. But this reaction was deliberately seized 
upon and developed by a systematic exploitation and 
control of school and college, literature and press, 
in the interests of the Hohenzollern dynasty. A 
teacher, a professor, who did not teach and preach 
in and out of season, the racial, moral, intellectual, 



Making a Contented Human Group 251 

and physical superiority of the Germans to all other 
peoples, their extraordinary devotion to war and 
dynasty, and their inevitable destiny under that 
dynasty to lead the world, was a marked man, 
doomed to failure and obscurity. . . . All other 
nations were represented as incompetent and deca- 
dent; the Prussians were the leaders and regener- 
ators of mankind. The young German read this in 
his school books, heard it in church, found it in his 
literature, had it poured into him with passionate 
conviction by his professors. It was poured into 
him by all his professors. . . . Only minds of extra- 
ordinary toughness and originality could resist such 
a torrent of suggestion ... it cannot be too clearly 
stated . . . that the German people was method- 
ically indoctrinated with the idea of a world-pre- 
dominance based on might, and with the theory that 
war was a necessary thing in life."* 

Continuing, Wells in turn reproduces from Sir 
Thomas Barclay's article on "Peace" in the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica, a quotation from Nietzsche which 
may well be regarded as the very text of German 
national philosophy. Thus Nietzsche: — "It is mere 
illusion and petty sentiment to expect much (even 
anything at all) from mankind if it forgets how to 
make war. As yet no means are known which call 
so much into action that rough energy born of the 
camp, that deep impersonality born of hatred, that 
conscience born of murder and cold-bloodedness, that 
fervor born of effort in the annihilation of the 

* An Outline of History, by H. G. Wells, previously cited. 



252 Our Unconscious Mind 

enemy, that proud indifference to loss, to one's own 
existence, to that of one's fellows ... as a great 
war." 

No doubt if Nietzsche could have formulated his 
philosophy after a year in the front-line trenches at 
Ypres, or while acting as assistant in a hospital filled 
with badly-gassed men coughing out their tortured 
lungs and writhing to their death-agony, he would 
still have announced the same views. The mania 
for pain and blood can become insatiable — particu- 
larly in some forms of insanity. 

The ready associations to the word, or idea, of 
"gun," are such as "shot"— "wound"— "blood"— 
"death." A gun is a symbol of power and aggres- 
sion. This is one of the reasons why it appeals to 
the primitive in a boy. If he is brought up on it, 
he may reasonably be expected to want to use it. 
Moreover, its associations, being always connected 
with a desired symbol, become deeply implanted as 
affect-images that are longed for rather than ab- 
horred. Reinforce them through all the formative 
years with such methods and ideas as we have been 
describing in the quotations, and we shall have a man 
who may be expected to welcome war exactly as the 
Prussians welcomed it. To expect anything else 
would be blind folly, from the point of view of psy- 
chology. What it has cost the world in suffering is 
beyond all computation. What it cost our own 
country in money is graphically pictured in the fol- 
lowing chart. 



Making a Contented Human Group 253 



JDMWtSTRAT/Otf 



PUBLIC 
WELFARE 

PUB L/C 
WORKS 




Apportionment of United States Income, 1919-1920. 

Total appropriations for year ending June 30, 1920, $5,686,005,- 
706.00. 

1% devoted to Public Welfare, divided approximately as fol- 
lows: Agriculture and development of natural resources, 
f; Education, \\ Public Health, -h\ Labor, 1/100. 

3% devoted to Public Works: Harbors, Rivers, Roads, Parks, 
etc. 

3.2% devoted to Administration: Expenses of Congress, Pres- 
ident, Departments, etc. 

92.8% devoted to Present Armaments and Past Wars: Includes 
care of soldiers, pensions, railroad deficit, Shipping Board, 
interest on debt, European food relief, etc. 

(From figures compiled by E. B. Rosa, Chief Physicist, United States Bureau 
of Standards in 1Q20.) 



254 UR Unconscious Mind 



RUSSIA 

Formative Factors: — Looking back upon the 
Russia of seven years ago we have the picture of a 
corrupt despotism in its last stages. A vast domain, 
the rudimentary coalescence of many tribes, loosely 
held together by force and by the partial ties of 
racial and lingual similarity. A country of great 
natural resources so poorly developed and so inade- 
quately distributed that the average standard of 
living was low. A religion compounded partly of 
the Christian faith, partly of Czar worship, partly 
of ikon worship, partly of sheer supersition. An 
educational system that left great masses of people 
in illiterate ignorance, and for the rest taught only 
what the court cabal allowed to be taught, interdict- 
ing all study of free governments or the progress of 
free peoples. A press which could appear only 
after the most autocratic censorship had made its 
columns worthless as reflectors of human events or 
human thought. The home of a considerable popu- 
lation of Jews who were kept in partial segregation 
and used as a periodic outlet for the murderous 
hatred of the rest of the masses whose sense of 
oppression had to vent itself on some human ob- 
jective at any cost. A system of espionage which 
reached into every nook and corner of the Empire, 
which made thought itself dangerous, which might 
even record the utterances of sleep as treasonable 



Making a Contented Human Group 255 

to the Czar, and which was constantly being used, 
both by its directors and its operatives, to further 
private vengeance. A system of punishment which 
sent its thousands upon thousands in a despairing 
stream away into the bitter exile of Siberia to live 
out a mad life of separation from family in grinding 
toil and privation. 

Meantime, through all the cities and towns filtered 
the doctrines of a courageous few who had the 
vision of revolt and freedom, and dared to whisper 
it in the ears of those who could be trusted. From 
one to another the doctrine passed, promising that 
with the end of the Czar and his group there should 
be a new Russia of freedom, plenty, and equal dis- 
tribution of all produced wealth. It was to be a 
system in which the present owners of wealth should 
become the servants of the proletariat. The man of 
property was described as a tyrant, in league with 
his fellows to enslave the workers and keep them 
in bondage. Every worker was to have a part in 
the new government, and Russia was to be the en- 
lightener of the world. 

With the day of freedom came the terrible fruits. 
The tribes fell apart, the antiquated and worn out 
systems of communication broke down and ceased 
to function. The mere possession of property 
standing as a symbol of oppression, the long re- 
pressed masses soon turned upon the owners of 
property as their arch enemies, took away their 
property and brought them face to face with four 



256 Our Unconscious Mind 

alternatives — death, prison, flight from the country, 
or servitude of the meanest and humblest sort. As 
a functioning unit, the trained business brains of the 
country ceased in a few months to be effective. 
With the seizure of power by the Bolsheviki, there 
came into direction of affairs a group of men who 
were for the most part idealists of undoubted sin- 
cerity but unpractised, unskilled in administrative 
details; also, because of their doctrines, unable to 
make a working compromise with other govern- 
ments. Chained to their promises and bound by the 
assurances they had given, the program they had 
preached, there was nothing for it but the utter de- 
struction of every vestige of capitalism, the reduc- 
tion of everything to communism. 

Now communism is a cooperative theory which 
ipso facto can be practised only if the individual 
yields completely to the herd. It requires virtually 
a complete self-abnegation, a superseding of. the 
primitive self-seeking by the highest cultural self- 
sacrifice; in brief, it calls for the last and highest 
level of intelligence, a level far beyond anything to be 
found in any considerable part of the world's masses 
today or likely to exist among them for a long 
time to come. That one hundred and fifty million 
mentally untrained people could be expected to func- 
tion at this level was a beautiful dream but a terrible 
unreality. As the truth of this gradually came home 
to the Bolshevik leaders, they were faced with the 
dilemma of yielding up their dream (and their per- 



Making a Contented Human Group 257 

sonal power) or putting the individual in bondage 
to the state by force. If the toiler, remembering 
the promised Utopia of ease and plenty, would not 
toil, he must be made to. If the peasant, mindful 
of the stomachs of his own family, would not turn 
into the common chest the food which he had raised 
by his labor on the soil, then that food must be taken 
from him by force. To be sure there was nothing 
to give him in exchange — no tools, clothing, or 
household necessities — but pieces of valueless paper 
bearing the old capitalist symbol of "ruble." That, 
however, could not be allowed to stand in the way. 
If communism would not work without despotism, 
then there was nothing for it but to be despotic. 
Meantime, the failures of the system could be 
charged to foreign persecution. 

To a certain limited extent such a charge was just. 
There is no question but that the foreign blockade 
intensified the misery of the situation. The Bol- 
shevik party had postulated its entire program on 
the assertion that the proletariats of all the world 
would arise and join in their assumption of power, 
their wrecking of the present order, and their opera- 
tion of society on a communistic basis. There had 
never been any sound reason for such an assertion, 
but, as before pointed out, mankind is at present 
guided by wish more than by reason, and the Bol- 
shevik shares the common human tendency to state 
things as one wishes they were rather than as they 
actually are. There is nothing exceptional or as- 



258 Our Unconscious Mind 

tonishing in the fact that the radical should try to 
get his way in spite of such trifling obstacles as in- 
dividual and group psychology. It is a fault com- 
mon to kings and capitalists, as well as to commu- 
nists. The sad thing for the world is that all of 
them are so slow to see it. 

The end-product of the Russian formative factors 
is, in the extent of its disaster, second only to what 
was the end of the Prussian formative factors. Let 
us turn now to consideration of our own country. 

AMERICA 

Formative Factors : — Attention has been suffi- 
ciently called to the sectionalism and the racial mix- 
ture, but it is essential that these should be clearly 
borne in mind throughout the picture. The "Solid 
South," always in contact with its negro problem, 
relying mainly upon one crop peculiar to its own 
region, identified steadily with a minority political 
party, is acutely conscious of itself apart from the 
nation. The "Far West," geographically separated 
by a great mountain range, troubled by the rapid 
increase of a race which it cannot assimilate and 
whose customs and habits of life it cannot accept, 
is insistently demanding attention to its Pacific prob- 
lem and is naturally provoked at the lack of sym- 
pathetic understanding on the part of the states three 
thousand miles away. 

The city banker is incensed at the agrarian popu- 
lists of the Northwest for throwing the financial 



Making a Contented Human Group 259 

system partially out of gear. The farmer every- 
where is discontented with the unequal distribution 
of labor, the inadequate provision for financing his 
crops, the grip which packer, terminal owner, and 
commission merchant, have on the products of his 
industry. Each city wishes to grow at the expense 
of the country and of other cities. Organized labor 
is determined to dominate its market; exactly as the 
motto of the former railroad executive was, "All 
the traffic will bear." The landlord proposes to get 
from the hapless and helpless tenant the last ultimate 
penny that can be squeezed from the shrinking in- 
come. As signs of trouble appear on the horizon a 
great group of Wall Street speculators leaps upon 
the financial market like a pack of wolves; from a 
thousand gambling stations come the selling orders, 
hurling upon the market millions of shares of stock 
which are not owned, in the effort to precipitate a 
condition of near-panic. With the crumbling prices 
comes a wave of depression and gloom which 
spreads to every community, discourages business 
men, closes pocket-books, checks the current of 
buying and selling, stops projected enterprises, stills 
the hum of factories, ties up capital in unsold inven- 
tories, empties stores of customers, and starts the 
bread-line. 

All this signifies the pursuit of money. It sig- 
nifies it as a pursuit without regard to the other 
fellow and as. a major aim in life. Let us glance 
briefly at some of the influences surrounding an 



260 Our Unconscious Mind 

American boy during the last thirty years. The 
ideal of success held before him on all sides was 
to be rich, an ideal of material acquisition and pos- 
session. To this was added an unvarying series of 
models of individual aggression and competition. 
He was told to honor Abraham Lincoln, but not to 
forget that the great thing was to beat the other 
fellow to the punch. He heard frequently that a 
man's bank account is his best friend, and that busi- 
ness is business (reminiscent somehow of the spirit 
of another phrase which we have come to view at 
close quarters, lately — "war is war"). Once in a 
great while he saw in the papers the picture of a 
scientist or teacher who had worked for humanity; 
but every Sunday he saw printed a dozen pictures 
of rich idle women at luxurious pleasure resorts, and 
always he observed that a front-page column was 
given to the benefactions of a rich adventurer who 
decided to give back to society some of the millions 
he had made in exploiting its necessities. He heard 
the doctor spoken of with affection, the pastor with 
something of respectful tolerance, but the rich man 
with envy. At every turn the power-symbol before 
him was money. He even heard that money would 
buy a seat in the United States Senate. Approval 
and esteem, then, were a matter of price and posses- 
sions. At school and on the street he found that the 
model was aggressive competition, the triumph of 
strong over weak. From his earliest years it was, 
"Willie, can you lick Jack — or can Jack lick you?" 



Making a Contented Human Group 261 

He saw that the teacher was not highly respected in 
the community and he soon learned that she was 
poorly paid, hence unimportant to the average eye. 
He saw that his companions had no respect for law, 
he imitated them and learned to think of laws and 
rules as made to be broken, and of breaking them 
as an amusing pastime; it was a sort of game, in 
which the idea was to see how far one could go and 
escape punishment. Property was a thing to be 
respected only if he or his family owned it. Posses- 
sion of an automobile meant an opportunity for 
particularly spectacular and gratifying defiance of 
the rights and safety of others. For a dime he 
could buy a "novel" which gave him hours of asso- 
ciation with fascinatingly heroic and daring crim- 
inals. With the coming of the cheap movie theatre 
he saw trains robbed, safes blown, women abducted; 
and he received at the Unconscious primitive level 
of his mind the strongest suggestions of aggression 
and lawlessness. 

I have no thought of minimizing the importance 
of all the influences which have gone counter to the 
foregoing. Our psychology is not all destructive, 
nor are our ideals lacking in persistent efforts at 
expression. Far from it. With the exception of 
the Swiss, I believe the American group is farther 
along the road toward cooperative intelligence than 
any other in the world; and moreover, there are 
movements under headway such as the Rotarians, 
the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Industrial As- 



262 Our Unconscious Mind 

sociations (of which the one at Cleveland is an ad- 
mirable model), which show that the trend toward 
a higher level of herd spirit is growing rapidly. 
But we cannot afford to blind ourselves to the false 
goals which we have permitted to become models 
for millions of us and which are outstanding factors 
of our present situation. It is not yet too late to 
mend. We are a quick-minded people, readily re- 
sponsive to intelligent and sincere leadership. 

THE AMERICA TO BE WORKED FOR 

The series of sketches would not be complete 
without one that embodied some of the formative 
factors which are both practicable and immediately 
desirable. Let us suppose an America in which the 
following is true : 

As soon as the children get into school they are 
organized into little cooperative groups, mainly self- 
governing, the older groups being the executive and 
judicial bodies, under the leadership of the teachers. 
The policing of the school is in the hands of the 
scholars, with responsibility divided between boys 
and girls, and the code of conduct is the golden 
rule, which is inset on a metal plate in every desk, 
printed on the fly-leaf of every book, and recited in 
the form of a pledge by the entire school at the 
commencement of each session. Two or three times 
a week, each teacher takes five minutes at the close 
of the day to report the most notable example of 
cooperation that has come to her attention, not sen- 



Making a Contented Human Group 263 

timentally but in precisely the same spirit as mention 
of a soldier in despatches. The ideal held before 
every child is that to win honor and esteem there 
must be something achieved in the way of help to 
another. Disputes shall invariably be settled by one 
or more referees. Arrogant or bullying conduct will 
bring instant suspension and segregation from the 
group until it is atoned for. The science of town, 
city, state and national government will be taught 
progressively to all pupils from the age of ten years 
upward, not so much by books as by daily class ex- 
periment, with original problems for individual solu- 
tion. From the age of twelve years, there will be, 
at least twice a week, critical review by the pupils 
themselves, of all local newspapers, with occasional 
extension of the criticism to other newspapers and 
periodicals. Teachers will be well paid, thoroughly 
educated, and thoroughly trained in applied child 
psychology. 

At home the child will hear and see at all times 
a deep, genuine respect for law, order, and the 
property as well as the rights and feelings of others. 
He will hear men and women admired most for 
public service and not at all for their possessions. 
He will see in his father and mother the example of 
two people who, without being in the least fanatical, 
are seriously interested in American progress and are 
doing their honest bit in their own neighborhood. 
He will find on the reading-table newspapers which 
criticize public officials constructively rather than 



264 Our Unconscious Mind 

with partisan bias and hatred; which have replaced 
their "society" columns with newsy "human inter- 
est" paragraphs about inventions, discoveries, house- 
hold arts, books, foreign life, scientists and their 
work, the thousand and one activities of the world's 
busy people; which ignore the idle, give scandal and 
crime the dignified condemnation which each de- 
serves, and reflect always a forward-looking view 
of American citizenship. 

If on reaching maturity he goes to work in a fac- 
tory, he will find there a social center with a- good 
restaurant, a good dancing floor, ample athletic 
equipment for games indoor and outdoor, a library, 
a small stage, and a man or woman in charge who 
knows how to keep things moving. It will be run 
exactly like a club and his small dues will be propor- 
tionate to his wages. From time to time he will 
meet there all the members of the executive staff — 
including the Big Boss himself — because the leaders 
who are really going to lead must have a common 
ground where they may know their men, and be 
known by them, as human beings. 



The foregoing is in some respects a simple pro- 
gram, yet it cannot be realized without a most de- 
termined, and probably prolonged, effort on the part 
of millions. Some such effort must, nevertheless, be 
made if our nation is to go forward. Human 
groups which have become mentally quickened do 



Making a Contented Human Group 265 

not remain static. The example of Greece and Rome 
should be sufficient to remind us that failure to 
progress means sure regression. Our fate is in our 
own hands. From primordial individualism to 
primitive herd; from primitive herd, in which the 
individual was completely submerged, like any 
buffalo of the earlier days on our western plains — 
and with relatively little more independence of 
thought or action; to the advanced individualism of 
today, wherein we jealously assert and defend our 
personal autonomy, our personal liberty, as a price- 
less heritage; mankind has moved through three 
principal phases of development. Whether personal 
liberty has found in American life its highest ex- 
pression, is not for the moment important. Cer- 
tainly it has made men happier, has quickened both 
mind and imagination, and has enormously increased 
the sense of, and capacity for, responsibility. These 
gains must be held. But also it has brought new 
frictions, new conflicts, new discontents, new cross- 
ings of purposes. These can be resolved only by 
a further — and perhaps the last — major phase of 
human development, the stage of fully enlightened 
cooperation. 

Assuredly this will involve partial resubmission of 
the individual to the greater welfare of the group. 
But we have nothing to fear from this concept, since, 
in simple logic, complete individualism can exist 
only in a state of anarchy. In a broad, generous 
and practical spirit of cooperation we may create in 



266 Our Unconscious Mind 

our American commonwealth a group in which the 
personal rights of every man and woman are fairly 
recognized without permitting them to supervene 
above the welfare of the whole. Doubtless we must 
expect determined resistance both from those who 
invoke the law to protect selfish privilege and those 
who value license above harmonic progress, but the 
goal is perhaps the most inspiring that has ever been 
within reach of human endeavor. 

Fortunately for the spirit of cheerful undertaking, 
a clock is required to tick only one beat at a time. 
We need not ask of ourselves that we do more than 
today's work today. The point is to begin doing it 
now and not wait until we have forgotten to do it at 
all; for the America of tomorrow is our job, a job 
big enough and splendid enough to enlist us all, from 
the smallest school-child to the mightiest intellect 
between the two oceans. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY IN ADVERTISING AND 
SELLING 

THE material in this section is to be partly an 
expansion in greater detail of that presented in 
my lectures to the Advertising Clubs of Cleveland, 
St. Louis, and other cities; as well as a description 
of some analytical methods which, under proper di- 
rection, can be put into service with practical results 
of the greatest value. The matter is included in this 
book because an understanding of the basic principles 
shown in the early sections, particularly those deal- 
ing with the "Operating Tower," the Unconscious, 
and Suggestion, is essential to its comprehension. 
The sense of proportion forbids any such broad 
treatment as my note-books tempt me to undertake, 
but within the compass of a section of reasonable 
size I believe it may be possible to pass along ma- 
terial which will suggest to advertising men, sales- 
men, and merchandising men generally, the value 
of studying the deeper layers of the mind on which 
they have to produce a favorable affect. 

As matters stand today, the average standard of 
advertising is very much higher than the average 
standard of personal salesmanship, particularly if 

267 



268 Our Unconscious Mind 

we include the retail store in our calculations. This 
is due in part to the fact that advertising, from its 
very nature, attracted men and women in whom the 
faculty of imagination is highly developed. Adver- 
tising, however, is a more complex art than most 
of the direct selling, and there is quite as much 
room for improvement in the one as in the other. 
Neither can ever be made an exact science, but both 
can be brought much nearer to it than they are now. 
It is really only a few years since the direction of 
both advertising and selling, from the plan of 
campaign to the ultimate customer-contact, was en- 
tirely based on personal opinion, with experience as 
a rough guide but without any accurate knowledge 
of the mechanisms or the mental machinery through 
which effects can be secured. 

Even today the situation in this respect has gone 
through comparatively little change. Personal 
opinion wrought out and crystallized through con- 
ferences, is the chief factor, rather than considera- 
tion of known mental processes. Some of the results 
are astonishingly good, and reveal in themselves 
how nearly intuition may approach exact knowledge. 
It is nevertheless true that there is tremendous waste 
both in advertising and in personal sales effort. 
Every advertising manager, every sales manager, 
knows this to be the case, and the best of them are 
always tirelessly seeking for ways, means and 
methods which will make the work of their depart- 
ments more efficient. Business has scarcely yet 



The New Psychology in Advertising 269 

begun to realize the extraordinary earnestness, far- 
sightedness and energy exemplified by such a move- 
ment, such a remarkable organization, as the Associ- 
ated Advertising Clubs of America with its provision 
for intensive study of every phase of its problems. 
I once heard a very intelligent agent of the old 
school remark that good advertising could be 
summed up as "projecting the story of your goods 
into the minds of a large group of people." At the 
time I thought the definition excellent; but in the 
light of our present knowledge of the mind we can 
see at once that it is not only inadequate but actually 
lacking in a most vital element. Good advertising, 
and for that matter good selling also, is the active as- 
sociation of one's goods with an acquisitive complex 
already existing at the Unconscious level; and a defi- 
nite avoidance of all associations which can entail re- 
sistance. This does not imply that the complex may 
not have a conscious level also. It merely places the 
emphasis where it belongs. Advertising works 
through the mechanisms of suggestion, and we know 
that suggestion takes effect most readily when it 
reaches and stimulates an Unconscious affect. 
Tansley* defines suggestibility as "the readiness to 
receive and adopt as part of the mental content sug- 
gestions of all sorts, whether arising from within the 
mind or from some outside source." Continuing he 
remarks: "There seems to be a prima facie readi- 
ness to accept suggestions of any sort and from any 

*Op. cit. 



270 Our Unconscious Mind 

source; but this is limited in certain directions by a 
refusal to accept those arising from certain sources 
which the mind regards as hostile or suspect, and 
also others which definitely conflict with a strong 
well-marked complex already present; and the readi- 
ness is enhanced in the case of suggestions arising 
from sources which the mind regards as possessing 
authority, and in the case of suggestions in harmony 
with pre-existing complexes. . . . 

"The power of suggestion on the human mind is 
well known, and is deliberately employed by 
teachers, pastors and therapeutists, as well as by 
demagogues and advertisement writers — indeed by 
all whose desire or business it is to influence the 
minds of others. Their success depends precisely 
on the skill with which they connect the suggestion 
which they wish to see adopted with some complex 
pre-existing in the minds of their audience." 

He goes on to point out that the mind is peculiarly 
susceptible to suggestion during the hypnotic state. 
This we know to be because during states of som- 
nolence, or even of reverie, the Unconscious is more 
accessible. Suggestion is not by any means the whole 
of advertising and selling, but it is the basis. 

There are certain observations on Tansley's state- 
ment which may be helpful before proceeding. 
Salesmen may well note the significance of the clause 
concerning refusal to accept suggestions arising from 
sources which are regarded as hostile or suspect. 
This directly applies to the personal reaction of the 



The New Psychology in Advertising 271 

customer to the salesperson, and will be more fully 
discussed later. The clause relating to suggestions 
which conflict with complexes already present touches 
the very heart of resistance to advertising and will 
be fully dealt with in both its positive and negative 
aspects. The clause concerning the authoritativeness 
of suggestion is important for further consideration, 
both as touching advertisements and as touching the 
equipment of a salesperson. The association of ad- 
vertisement writers with demagogues, teachers, 
pastors and therapeutists may well bring a smile 
to all who know the difference between the adver- 
tising situation in England and in America, but our 
critical faculty had better be directed at the words 
"deliberately employed." 

A glance at the pages of our newspapers supplies 
ample evidence that if all advertisement writers are 
deliberately making use of the power of suggestion 
they certainly have much to learn about the mechan- 
isms through which suggestion takes effect in the 
human mind. Nothing could be truer, however, 
than the statement that their success depends upon 
the skill with which they connect their suggestion 
with a complex already existing in the minds of their 
readers; except that there should emphatically be 
added, the skill with which they avoid stimulating 
affects which will give rise to resistance. 

The preliminary state of mind of the man who 
wishes to sell goods needs to be as nearly as possible 
the state of mind of the men or women to whom he 



272 Our Unconscious Mind 

hopes to sell them. Yet I have found comparatively 
few who have taken the trouble to acquire this state 
of mind by actual experience or actual absorptive 
contact. I have seen the plans for the investment 
of hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising, 
concocted around an office desk or lunch-table by 
three or four men who were no more in touch with 
the mental states, habits and general attitude of the 
people they were going to address than if they had 
lived in a different country. I have seen a million 
dollars' worth of space-schedules, designs and copy, 
passed by a man whose only view of the class to 
whom he wished to sell was from the window of his 
limousine, and who never once inquired whether 
anyone concerned with the work really knew that 
class from personal association, One thousand dol- 
lars — one-tenth of one per cent — devoted to ac- 
curate association tests, would have provided exact 
data for the entire campaign, eliminating any ques- 
tion of personal opinion or guesswork. Similarly 
I have known of a sales manager addressing a 
meeting of his force and telling them that they must 
go to the factory and learn all about how the goods 
were made, but entirely forgetting the importance of 
learning how the minds of customers functioned, 
what were their habits of thought and their strong- 
est interests. 

For convenience of grouping it will perhaps be 
well to consider separately some of the psychological 
methods and mechanisms applicable to advertising 
and selling. 



The New Psychology in Advertising 273 

ADVERTISING 

This begins logically with the name of the goods. 
Many a campaign is heavily handicapped at the out- 
set by a name which arouses unguessed resistances. 
I have been able to conduct extensive association 
experiments along this line, and the results are suf- 
ficiently conclusive to indicate that thousands of 
manufacturers are unwittingly encountering tre- 
mendous buying resistance through unfortunate as- 
sociations with the trade-mark names of their fea- 
tured products. The mechanism of association has 
been described in the chapter which dealt with the 
case of conversion hysteria so that we may at once 
proceed to examine certain sets of ideas which came 
into the minds of people when various trade-mark 
names were put before them on the test board or on 
separate sheets of paper. 

1. The name of a certain automobile. Among 
the many associations which came up, three out of 
eight people thought of a notorious and revolting 
criminal case. Two others thought at once of a 
slang word, sounding much like the name of the car, 
which is a common term of belittlement and con- 
tempt. The car, though splendidly made, has never 
become widely popular. 

2. A breakfast food. Liberal advertising failed 
to popularize an excellent product the name of which 
suggested, to six people out of ten, a common suffix 
which is used to indicate a substitute for something 
real. 



274 Our Unconscious Mind 

3. A soap. Associations were taken from nine 
people. Three men thought of a certain noxious 
insect which was indigenous to the trenches during 
the late war. Two women thought of caustic dis- 
infectants and rough skin. (It should be remem- 
bered that the minds are carefully prepared before- 
hand by the operator so that there will be no atti- 
tude of criticism. The associations form spontane- 
ously). The soap is excellent but has a most limited 
sale. It is in marked contrast to another soap of 
far inferior quality which has a very wide sale — and 
the associations to the name of which were nearly 
one hundred per cent pleasing, and more than fifty 
per cent related to beauty. 

4. The name of a tobacco product, which, it is re- 
sponsibly reported, costs more to advertise, per unit 
of sale, than any other widely distributed brand. 
Associations taken in both Europe and America. The 
European reports are not experimentally accurate, 
but of the American association-sheets sixty-seven 
per cent show a series of unpleasant ideas aroused by 
name and package. 

5. The name of a piano which from its quality 
and price should have been extremely popular, but 
has not been. Associations were taken with eleven 
women and one man. In seven of the sheets, ap- 
pearing in some immediately, in others farther along 
in the chain of words and thoughts, were ideas con- 
nected with death and funerals. The makers may 
well wonder why their excellent instrument is so 
unconsciously resisted. 



The New Psychology in Advertising 275 

6. The name of a well-known and deservedly 
popular mineral water. Seven out of ten sheets of 
association-words contained such ideas as "purity," 
"clearness," "coolness," "refreshment." Both 
name and label produced an ideal group of associa- 
tions for the sale of this product. 

7. Corsets. Fourteen women supplied associa- 
tions to the name of an admittedly well-designed and 
well-made kind which has not been commercially a 
success. The associations of eight out of the group 
included ideas of constriction, suffocation and rigid- 
ness. Only two associated an idea of beauty with 
the name. 

The foregoing examples should be sufficient illus- 
tration of the importance of knowing in advance the 
sort of ideas and affects which are surely going to be 
stimulated by the name of a product. The fact that 
the dual censorship prevents these ideas from in- 
stantly coming through to conscious recognition does 
not interfere with their qualifying the impression of, 
or rather the reaction to, the goods. The situation 
is the same as that which occurs to all of us from 
time to time when we encounter someone in whom 
we can find no apparent fault, yet whom, for some 
unknown reason, we cannot like. It is usually the 
case that there is an unconscious group of associa- 
tions which have unpleasant affects. Thorough 
analysis rarely fails to bring these to light. 

The naming problem at once divides itself into 
two parts. There is the question of what to do 
about a name that has been proved undesirable, and 



276 Our Unconscious Mind 

what to do about naming a new product. As to the 
first question, it may be doubted if there is ever any 
wisdom in continuing a campaign against strong 
associative resistances. The long-range view would 
seem to me to be that changes had better be made 
even though this involves considerable trouble and 
some temporary loss. Personally, I would rather 
trade horses in midstream than ride a lame one all 
my life, particularly if I could be assured that with 
reasonable care and foresight I could get a good one 
in the exchange. As to the second question, perhaps 
the most effective answer will be to describe a simple 
method of making association tests. 

Let us suppose that the article to be named is 
some sort of women's toilet preparation. The 
strongest unconscious affect which can be stimulated 
in this connection is the desire for beauty. But we 
must not stop there, because we wish to sell the 
article to thousands of women who know that they 
are not beautiful, who have given up all idea of ever 
being beautiful, and to whom in fact an over- 
emphasis of the beauty idea is rather painful. Let 
us then qualify the idea of beauty with the more 
general idea of enhanced attractiveness. We may 
now be certain of favorable affect and pleasurable 
associations in the minds of practically all. This 
gives specific direction to the search for a name. 
It must be one which will suggest ideas of enhanced 
attractiveness not confined to the original possession 
of featural beauty. The field of possibilities is wide, 



The New Psychology in Advertising 277 

including names of mythological or historical char- 
acters, plays upon the names of objects, flowers, 
colors, combinations of significant syllables, etc. 
Out of these may be selected a large list, of which 
each name should be studied to ascertain how it 
lends itself to design and illustration. The dozen 
or so which best combine the desired elements are 
now ready for testing. 

Have each name printed in simple legible char- 
acters; not too heavy, and in no way decorative f at 
the head of two dozen large sheets of plain white 
paper. The sheets should then be collated in sets, 
each set comprising all the names. The next step 
should be entrusted to a highly intelligent and abso- 
lutely trustworthy person who will carry it out ex- 
actly as indicated and not otherwise. He or she 
must arrange with two dozen women, representa- 
tive of all classes to whom the preparation is to be 
sold, to give at least twenty minutes each day for 
two weeks to a special bit of work, for which it is 
best to pay if they will accept payment. Each one 
is told that she will receive by mail, each day, one of 
the sheets; that at some time of the day or evening 
when she is certain of not being disturbed she is to 
sit down, rest for ten minutes, then look at the word 
at the top of the sheet and write down in lines be- 
neath it whatever words and ideas come into her 
mind. She is to look at the word frequently during 
the process and set down whatever she thinks of, 
relevant or irrelevant. When the sheet is filled she 



278 Our Unconscious Mind 

is to mail it to the office. She should be told that 
she is cooperating in an advertising test, but by no 
means should she be told what the word is connected 
with. It is not critical faculty that is wanted, but 
the product of relaxed spontaneous association. She 
should never have two sheets in one day because the 
memories of one are likely to carry over to the 
other. 

When all the sheets are completed, it will be found 
easy to group the associations under various affect- 
heads, beneath the general divisional heads of "fa- 
vorable" and "unfavorable." The results may point 
clearly to one name or may show that three or four 
have almost equal elements of desirability. In any 
case, if the material has been properly gathered it 
will be found of great value. 

I have known of one manufacturer who, after fol- 
lowing something of this method, then threw away 
half of what he had gained, by advertising the fact. 
Suggestion, to take effect at the unconscious level, 
must remain at that level. As soon as you inform 
people how you plan to affect their minds you make 
it quite certain that you will produce an affect ex- 
actly opposite. In passing, it may well be questioned 
whether a manufacturer is often the best person to 
suggest names for his own product. His mind is 
naturally so full of unconscious associations peculiar 
to himself that it is very difficult for him to see his 
goods as the consumer sees them. What he really 
wants is to establish a wide market, but often un- 



The New Psychology in Advertising 279 

wittingly he lets his pride get badly in the way of so 
doing. 

In line with the mechanism of association we must 
consider briefly the symbolism of form, color, letter 
and number, since these bear a direct relation to the 
mechanism. It is obvious that every design has a 
dual significance, the manifest and the latent or 
symbolic, and this is true of typography as well as 
of illustration. 

The manner in which the picture of an automobile 
is presented does more than merely give the possible 
buyer the information that he wants about the lines 
of the car. It may reflect the maker's actual uncon- 
scious opinion of the car, or the opinion which he 
wishes the reader to have, or both; or the more in- 
volved suggestion of the pleasures which possession 
of the car would bring. The ideal presentation will 
combine all of these, carefully avoiding marked ex- 
aggeration as sure to convey a suggestion of insin- 
cerity and doubt. The one exception to the above 
would be if the maker's unconscious opinion of his 
own car is that it is an inferior product — in which 
case he will do well not to advertise it at all. The 
important thing is that artist, retoucher, lay-out man, 
engraver, and printer, all shall have a clear and 
comprehensive idea of the elements of the problem. 
"A good picture of our car," is only the beginning. 

In the dentrifice illustrations which show a beau- 
tiful woman with brilliant teeth, and those which 
suggest the fear of disease and decay, we have two 



280 Our Unconscious Mind 

different types of suggestion which aim by opposite 
symbols to produce the same results. I have often 
wondered why two of the clearest symbolic possi- 
bilities in dentifrice advertising are almost wholly 
neglected. They are there, waiting for anyone who 
will use simple analysis and synthesis. 

Breakfast foods, and soaps, have been presented 
with much imagination in the design symbolism, but 
for both there is still a wide possibility which has 
been untouched — particularly so for the breakfast 
food. 

But what concerns us more, and is least thought 
of, is the deeper significance of the actual elements 
in design. Geometrically every line and every space 
may be said to have a shape. Now it is true of 
nearly everybody that the eye perceptions are the 
most sensitive, most acutely impressive, and most 
important. Shapes of all sorts become highly 
charged with special meanings to the Unconscious, 
from the earliest years. If the reader will take 
a pencil and a number of pictorial designs, and 
mark them over heavily on the various spatial out- 
lines, he will find that a few minutes given to each 
one, by the association method, will suffice to form 
many images which the outlines suggest. There will 
be images of people, objects, animals, flowers, trees, 
reptiles, human figures, etc., some pleasant and some 
unpleasant. Most of these will be unimportant, just 
as most of the things which are in the ordinary range 
of vision are unimportant; but some of them deserve 



The New Psychology in Advertising 281 

careful thought. They may not be consciously noted 
by the people to whom the advertisement goes, but 
their power to produce affects in the Unconscious 
can be, and has been, experimentally demonstrated. 

Form and method in typography also have their 
symbolic significance, of which the following are 
examples: Careful setting, or slovenly setting; — 
indices of personality. Faces and borders dispro- 
portionately heavy; — a ponderous and fist-pounding 
aggressiveness which is commonly associated in our 
minds with a weak case. Too little text, "stuntily" 
set; — the impression that there was nothing to say, 
but an effort is being made to attract attention. 
Crowded text; — an impression of anxious stress and 
effort, from which the mind instinctively recoils. 
Long single columns with narrow type-body; — an 
impression of thinness and weakness. All italic, or 
mostly italic; — an impression of desperately strained 
emphasis, a reflection on the reader's intelligence. 
(It is worthy of note that the vogue of underlined 
copy was short. No one likes to be addressed as if 
he were thick-headed and dull of comprehension.) 
Type of faces that are disproportionately thin for 
the design; — weakness and lack of virility. Exces- 
sive decoration ; — an insincere straining for effect. 

Of the colors, red associates clearly with aggres- 
sion, but equally with warmth, vitality, and pleasur- 
able excitement. Blue associates with truth, sincerity, 
coolness, dignity; in its darker shades with solitude 
and repose; in its lighter shades with youth and out- 



282 Our Unconscious Mind 

of-doors. Yellow associates with gold, sunlight, 
passivity, and — by slang connection — with cowardice 
and unreliability. The latter associations being 
wholly at the conscious level and entirely based on 
metaphor have no deeply determining value. Pink 
associates with youth, beauty, femininity. Green 
associates with strength, masculinity, steadiness, 
safety; white with purity; gray with dignity and 
repose; black with finality, elegance, death; purple 
with richness; lavender with sentiment. These are 
but a few of the many color associations, but they 
may serve to stimulate experiment, which will be 
found both interesting and profitable. 

Of letters and numbers there are special associa- 
tions peculiar to each individual, but also certain 
ideas of such widely general acceptance that they 
may well be considered in design and make-up. 
Examples are M standing for Mother, F standing 
for Father and family, H for Home — all these being 
deeply emotionalized ideas in the average Uncon- 
scious. The number 3 is a well-nigh universal power 
symbol, hence a favorite number, being associated 
with the Trinity, with the family complex of Father, 
Mother and Self, with mythology, proverb, and 
childhood games. The number 5 is also a favorite 
number, its significance arising in part from the num- 
ber of the fingers with which comes the first ability 
to grasp and hold, and from its prominent place in 
our counting and monetary system. Women as a 
group show a marked fondness for 2, the symbolism 



The New Psychology in Advertising 283 

of which is mating and marriage, for many centuries 
their ideal of happiness and safety. For 7 the sym- 
bolism is sacredness, the number having deep signifi- 
cance in religion. The examples, as in the case of 
color and letter, do not begin to cover the subject, 
but may suggest its importance. 

Before leaving the subject of association, it is 
necessary to consider advertising copy also from that 
viewpoint. The most helpful point of departure for 
all copy is a thorough analysis of just what conscious 
affects will stimulate and intensify the responses 
desired. We shall do well in this connection to study 
the "Law of Dominant Affect" advanced in the chap- 
ter on Suggestion and Autosuggestion. It was 
pointed out, there, that suggestion to become 
supremely effective must stimulate an affect which is 
strong enough from its very nature to accumulate 
sufficient energy so that it can supervene over all 
others and dominate the conduct. The dominant 
motive of the individual is Ego Maximation, but this 
has a great number of paths and an infinite variety of 
modes of expression. 

For each primitive impulse there is a cultural 
check. The primitive desire to have a handsome 
house, or better clothes, or a faster car, than one's 
neighbors, meets the cultural resistance of expense, 
inexpediency, or self-criticism. We shall accomplish 
little by anticipating these objections if we merely 
meet them at the conscious level and try to out- 
persuade them. Trying to induce a man to "hang 



284 Our Unconscious Mind 

the expense," may work occasionally, but its normal 
effect is only to direct attention more strongly on the 
expense. Indeed it is not far from the fact to say 
that anyone sold by persuasion has been only half 
sold and is more than likely to be dissatisfied. The 
higher level of procedure is to devote all the energy 
to stimulating, unconsciously to the possible customer, 
the affect (wish-feeling) which can over-ride all 
objections. This can be done, and is constantly being 
done, by steady iteration and reiteration of the merits 
of the goods, but that does not prove that the method 
is the best; it only proves that steady hammering can 
overcome a great deal of resistance. A successful 
flank attack costs less than pounding at a fortified 
wall. 

With the deeper wish-feelings, which it is desirable 
to stimulate, clearly in mind, it is then possible to 
make a wide analysis of the associations which can 
excite these wishes and which will tend to do so 
unconsciously. (Examples will be given in connec- 
tion with department store advertising.) 

The entire campaign may now be planned as a 
direct, continuous and progressive play upon these 
associations; and the resultant power of the sug- 
gestion conveyed to the public will be far greater 
than the merely compulsive effect of unremitting 
argument or insistent laudation of the goods. If 
one could afford to waste time on negative criticism 
it would be very much to the point to observe how 
directly a natural resistance is aroused by such 



The New Psychology in Advertising 285 

slogans and catch-lines as announce to the reader 
(implying that he is stupid to resist) that it is only 
a question of time when he will certainly buy that 
product and no other. The cleverness (!) of such 
advertising consists in the ability of the inventor of 
the phrase to delude himself. I have placed such 
a phrase on an association sheet, with the name of 
the product, and tried the following experiment. To 
the question of whether they considered it good 
advertising, seventeen out of eighteen replied in the 
affirmative. To the next question, "Do you use this 
article?" the entire eighteen gave negative replies. 
To the third question, "Would you -prefer it to any 
other?" two replied affirmatively, one refused to 
answer on the ground that the questions had been a 
trick, three were indifferent, and twelve returned 
a direct negative. 

I shall next try to point out the connection between 
the mechanisms dealt with in the "Operating Tower" 
chapter, and effective advertising. The first example 
used there was that of the pin-pricked finger. The 
perception was telegraphed over the inward-bound 
nerve path and produced in the central station an 
affect which was unsatisfactory. The response was 
an effort to change the environment of the finger. 
To an affect which is satisfactory the tendency is to 
adjust the body's receptors (outer terminals of in- 
ward-bound paths) so as to get more of the same 
stimulation. To an affect of such low intensity as 
to amount to indifference, the tendency is not to 



286 Our Unconscious Mind 

respond at all. To an affect which runs counter to 
conscious intentions there is resistance, hence conflict 
and disturbance. In the last of these we have the 
basis of resistance to advertising and selling. In 
the sum of the ramification of all of them we have 
the entire merchandising problem. 

From the time one of us gets up in the morning 
until he goes to bed at night, someone is trying to 
sell him something. He encounters the efforts of 
a hundred to do this, in his morning paper. Every 
sign on a window or door, every card in the street- 
car, every cry of newsboy or street vendor, every 
electric sign, every billboard, every page of his 
evening paper, every advertising page of his maga- 
zine, is an effort to get him to do something which 
will require the expenditure of thought, time, energy 
and money. To prevent the complete disruption of 
his daily life, to protect the central station from 
intolerable disturbance, there has been developed 
both the habit-indifference to the stimulation and a 
high censoring resistance. To overcome these we 
must get to the very heart of the matter; we must 
provide images which will both surmount the indif- 
ference and, because of the strength of their pleas- 
urable associations, evade the censorship. 

This brings us to the question of how images are 
formed. We know that attention itself expends 
muscular energy. We know that most of the ex- 
periences of childhood have received their definition 
and reinforcement through motion or ideas of 



The New Psychology in Advertising 287 

motion. We know that to convey an idea vigorously 
almost always involves an image of motion. In this 
connection I quote the following excerpts from 
Kempf's Autonomic Functions and The Person- 
ality.* 

"The correlation of the stream of affectivity, as 
the determinant of the thought content of conscious- 
ness, with the stream of affectivity which determines 
the postural tonus of the skeletal muscles, become 
clear in the concept that certain forms of muscle 
activity largely constitute the thought process. . . . 

"The affective stream should be seen as a con- 
tinuous but complex stream of afferent impulses 
arising, peripherally, from the receptors in the auto- 
nomic apparatus. The thought content of conscious- 
ness is largely determined by the nature of the 
affective stream as it effects the postural tonus of 
the striped muscles. . . . 

"It is natural to assume that the seat of conscious- 
ness or of the 'mind' occupies a region just behind 
and above the eyes, because the eyes and their 
extrinsic muscles are the supreme afferent channel 
of the entire organism. No interests may be aroused 
in anything without the eyes being immediately so 
focussed as to acquire additional information about 
its nature. When the eyes are useless, as in total 
darkness and blindness, the auditory apparatus tends 
to become the chief afferent channel. . . . No ex- 
pression of thought is complete without the inclusion, 

*Op. cit 



288 Our Unconscious Mind 

frankly or implied, of a verb. The verb denotes 
some form of motion, and rarely does the personality 
refer to or reproduce an image of a form of motion 
without the extrinsic muscles of the eye contributing 
kinesthetic sensations of movement as the eye follows 
the visual image of the moving object." 

We have then the visual and auditory images as 
of primary and secondary forcefulness. If we can 
devise figures of speech and of design which create 
both, the impression will be all the stronger. The 
following examples are not given with the idea that 
they are all suitable for advertising, but merely to 
illustrate the principle of language which renders 
itself into motion images. 

i. If I say, "the racing cars went past at a fast 
clip," I have only a feeble image. If I say, "they 
roared past like a cyclone," I have given a dual 
image, "roar" being associated with heavy vibration 
of the eardrums, and "cyclone" with a visual impres- 
sion of great power and speed. 

2. "Getting a smash in the eye" is an expression 
which includes three visual images and one auditory. 
In the sense of motion these are, the motion of the 
blow coming, the motion of the sound of impact, 
the motion of recoil, and the motion of aggression 
to return the blow. 

3. The advertiser who says "this glove fits your 
hand as if made for it," conveys a two-fold motion 
image; the feel of the glove being smoothed over 
the hand, and the sight of it in place. 



The New Psychology in Advertising 289 

4. "A child is being attacked by a tramp." This 
phrase uttered in a tone of real alarm can stimulate 
a whole series of affects, each one of which is 
attended by rudimentary motion, all within the space 
of a few seconds. These would be analyzed, auto- 
nomically, as: a. Internal and external change of 
muscle tone as reaction to fear. b. Further changes 
in muscle tone as reaction to anger, c. Rudimentary 
muscular images of protection and rescue, d. Mus- 
cular images of vengeful punishment toward the 
tramp, e. Visual motion images of the attack, f. 
Auditory motion images of the child's cries. 

5. A department store had received some very 
dainty flannelette nightgowns for children, which it 
was desirable to sell quickly. The section in the 
store's page announcing the garments, described 
them, dwelt on their warmth, and remarked that 
they were exceptional value for the price — a time- 
worn assertion that is passed by the average mind as 
meaning next to nothing. The nightgowns failed to 
move. Their price was cut, and still they failed to 
move. A bright young woman, whose imagination 
had not atrophied, suggested that she write a little 
advertisement which would give mothers this vision, 
"a sleeping child, nestling comfortably in a garment 
whose material is as soft as the skin it protects." (I 
am forced to quote from memory, but believe I have 
quoted accurately.) The nightgowns were sold, 
The sentence is a fine example of multiform sight 
and touch images adroitly combined in a suggestion 



290 Our Unconscious Mind 

which stimulates directly the deepest wish-feelings 
in a mother's mind. 

6. Dual motion images with respect to dress goods 
are admirably conveyed in the following: "This 
material has an extraordinary way of taking the lines 
of a figure — and keeping them!" 

7. "Tired to death; but ready for a dish of 
," is a food headline which instantly pro- 
duces motion images anything but pleasant or stimu- 
lating. An ideal headline is one which gives rise, 
through unconscious stimulation of pleasure wishes, 
to a frame of mind that is interested. In other words 
it will excite an impulse to extend the receptors for 
more of the same stimulation. Ten minutes given 
to a review of an average group of advertisements 
will suffice to show how generally this principle is 
overlooked. Indeed one might conclude that to the 
average advertising writer the principles of auto- 
nomic affect and response were not known, since there 
is no class of men and women more intelligent and 
apt in applying known psychological principles. The 
difficulty may well lie in the success with which many 
text-books on psychology manage to conceal their 
meanings in a maze of terminology. 

8. "When Kreisler Draws The Bow" — . This 
headline, with a picture which included an excellent 
drawing of a phonograph and a "shadow drawing" 
of the great artist playing, could hardly be improved 
on as a graphic motion image associating to the 
pleasure of music. 

9. The best series of visual motion images that 



The New Psychology in Advertising 291 

I have seen associated with clothing, occurs in the 
following: "A Woman is as Slim as She Looks in 
THE GRACILE SUIT And a Woman Only Knows 
How Slender She Is When She Puts It On." Divided 
into four lines and set with beautifully balanced 
24-point upper and lower case italic contrasting with 
a graceful display face, it conveyed in the type itself 
the very image of the visual motion which it sug- 
gested. Moreover, the name "GRACILE" has a 
sense of most attractive motion. 

10. "Make Your Food Your Medicine." The 
early childhood motion images associated with medi- 
cine are avertive and emissive. These are most 
unfortunate associations for food, certainly not con- 
ducive to the formation of a pleasure wish. 

In the foregoing are examples of visual, auditory, 
and touch-sense images which have the quality of 
motion. The sense of smell, and the sense of taste, 
are much more difficult to stimulate through motion 
images, but that does not argue that it cannot be 
done. There are both external and internal muscle 
responses to these senses, and they have besides, a 
wide series of associations with experiences and 
events which were constellated with both motions 
and emotions. The first experience of a child in 
smelling a flower may have been followed by a move 
toward it and an effort to grasp it. I have observed 
that the words "pine woods," used as an association- 
stimulus, are commonly followed by slightly deeper 
respiration. "Sea air" will produce a similar reac- 
tion. (The stimulus words must be given without 



292 Our Unconscious Mind 

the other person knowing what reaction is looked 
for; otherwise the reaction is likely to be inhibited.) 
Such words as "cloves," "lemon," "candy," "sour 
milk," "honey," "onions," are capable of producing 
almost instant reaction in the salivary glands, with' 
more or less extended reaction in the alimentary 
tract as far as, and including, the stomach. These 
words are strong stimuli, and it may be rightly in- 
ferred that the force of a scent or taste image would 
become very slight if the ordinary descriptive words 
were used. We should not forget, however, that 
the visual sense may be relied on for intensification. 
"The fragrance of a red red rose" may actually be 
no stronger than that of a pale pink one ; but to most 
people it will seem stronger, because there is an 
exciting visual image. "Fragrant as a summer morn- 
ing" is a good example of multiplication of images, 
in this case a simile being used which will fit the 
experience of almost anyone except the few unfor- 
tunates who have never known a summer morning 
in the country. 

The principle then is to provide associative stimuli 
which will give images having the quality of motion, 
and to play upon more than one sense if possible. 
This applies to design, display, copy and lay-out. 
The endeavor is to apply the suggestion as nearly 
as possible at the unconscious level. This brings 
us to the use of command and concretion, and their 
relation to American temperament and habit. 

A mail-order man once said to me, "I always end 
my ads with a command. You can't get these hicks 



The New Psychology in Advertising 293 

to act unless you tell them at the end to take a pen, 
sit right down at the table, and answer now!" He 
may have been right with respect to the "hicks," 
but I do not believe that the wide adoption of his 
principle has been good for general campaigns. The 
direct command to "Use so-and-so," staring one in 
the face on all sides, is merely a nuance of the "Sit 
right down and write us today! Do it now!" It 
strikes one of the strongest unconscious resistances 
in the average American, that against being com- 
manded instead of asked or invited. 

It is closely associated with the sort of sign which 
says "Keep Out! — This means You!" The average 
unconscious — and often the conscious — tendency is 
to do exactly the opposite. 

Instead of "Chew Blank's Gum after every meal," 
why not this — "After meals a breath-sweetening aid 
to digestion — Blank's Gum"? It is just as easy to 
avoid resistance as to stimulate it. 

"Talcorose Powder — the perfect finish for a per- 
fect shave," will not only make one think of using 
the powder, but may actually, through its unconscious 
suggestion, make a man shave better. Certainly it 
avoids the Unconscious resistance to the point-blank 
command. 

Again, which is likely to win the average American 
more easily of the following contrasted endings? 

1. "What is left to tomorrow usually is never 
done. Answer today, now, while you are thinking 
of it." 

2. "There is an intelligent, courteous man in our 



294 O ur Unconscious Mind 

office who will write you immediately and fully — 
as freely and promptly as we hope you will write us." 

(Number one is copied verbatim from an adver- 
tisement. Number two is not given as a model, but 
as a suggestion of the alternative principle.) 

Turning to what I have termed "concretion," it 
should be explained that this refers to converting an 
unconscious suggestion into a conscious one, by put- 
ting in what has been called the "sales punch." From 
many association sheets among my notes I fancy 
that if some advertising writers could see them they 
might be inclined to consider "pulling" the punch or 
omitting it altogether. The first time a thing is done 
it may have the effectiveness of novelty, and its ele- 
ment of surprise may overcome its false psychology. 
For example a single vaudeville actor in the course 
of a performance may come out and slang the 
audience to their vast amusement, but let all the 
actors on the bill try any such thing and anger would 
soon take the place of amused indulgence. It has 
been pointed out that the presence of sales efforts 
on every hand results in a habit-indifference to the 
stimuli which is chiefly an automatic protective ad- 
justment of people's minds. If a certain specific type 
of stimulus becomes too insistent, the result is irrita- 
tion, and active, in place of passive, resistance. Just 
such a mechanism gave rise to the perennial mother- 
in-law jokes, and, in the field under consideration, 
to such jokes as, "If an ordinary man were muscled 
like a flea, he could throw a book agent two miles." 

The following is an illustration of this insistence 



The New Psychology in Advertising 295 

upon concretion — upon refusing to trust the uncon- 
scious or the intelligence of readers. I had been 
explaining the principles of unconscious suggestion 
to a manufacturer of whole-wheat products. He 
seemed to grasp the idea, announced that he wholly 
approved of it, and asked me to illustrate it by 
designing an advertisement of whole wheat for a 
high-class mother's magazine. The primary interest 
of a mother being in the healthy growth of her chil- 
dren the matter required but a few moments' con- 
sideration. I handed him a hasty sketch as follows. 
Space, 6 inches double-column. At the opposite sides 
of the space, two figures facing each other across it. 
The figure at the left, a tall, handsome, smiling 
Russian* girl in holiday costume. The figure at the 
right a powerful young Scotch Highlander at the 
salute. The text: 

Physically splendid — the Russians and the 
Scotch! Strong and superbly healthy. 

The national food of one is whole-grain 
buckwheat: of the other, whole-grain oat- 
meal. 

Whole-grain WHEAT from America's 
rich prairies has even greater bone and 
sinew building power 

— and it makes smoother, finer, hand- 
somer skin. 

*This, of course, would be a poor symbol at the present time 
of famine in Russia. 



296 Our Unconscious Mind 

He took the thing home to think it over, and two 
days later telephoned me that he would like to use 
it if I had no objection, but he thought it lacked 
"the selling punch," and he should like to add, in 
18-point bold face at the bottom, before mentioning 
his product— "EAT WHOLE WHEAT." I 
assured him that I had no objection if he would in 
turn let me add the three words more which would 
complete the implication; making it read, — "EAT 
WHOLE WHEAT— YOU STUPID WOMAN." 

For several widely distributed articles on the 
American market, particularly some popular flour, 
and some popular-priced automobile, there is a cam- 
paign possible which would accomplish more than 
almost any other in the last dozen years. The idea 
of it is obvious if one will but analyze the factors. 
The elements necessary to its success are almost made 
to order; but they do not include the "sales punch" 
or the direct command. 

Next in line is the factor of negative suggestion. 
To a certain extent, all purely competitive advertis- 
ing is negative; that is to say, in attempting to dis- 
credit a competitor's goods there is an implied reflec- 
tion on the entire industry. Negative suggestion, 
however, is not confined to competitive copy. It 
appears in all forms of designs, headlines and open- 
ing paragraphs, in which the point of view has been 
to set up a possibly unsatisfactory situation and then 



The New Psychology in Advertising 297 

knock it down or overcome it. Let us take the fol- 
lowing examples for brief analysis: 

1. "Other stores may match our price — but they 
will not give you as much for it. They may also 
match our quality — but you will have to pay them 
more." The inevitable presumption here, since this 
store is obviously doing business to make a fair profit, 
is that the entire trade is in a conspiracy to deal 
unfairly with the public. Moreover, a blatant 
declaration that "we alone are honest" convinces 
nobody. 

2. "Prove these things at any dealer's," implies 
that the writer expects to be doubted, and insinuates 
that advertising generally is overstatement; hence if 
the expression is used as a headline it suggests in- 
credibility for what follows. 

3. "Attention is a vague thing unless it has a 
definite meaning." This headline, it may be re- 
marked, is as vague as its definition of attention. 
Why not make it positive, by saying "Our idea of 
ATTENTION is a whole-hearted effort TO 
SERVE YOU—"? 

4. "Father came home that night so tired he 
couldn't eat his dinner. He made a brave effort, 
but the fatigue and worry of the day were too much 
for him. He sat through the meal and longed for 
bed. When dinner was over he dropped on the sofa 
and thought wearily of the morrow. But Mary 



298 Our Unconscious Mind 

put on an irresistibly cheery record of Harry 
Lauder's latest — ." Quite so. But why not let 
Mary put on the record just before he came in? 
"Father heard Harry Lauder singing even before 
he came up the steps. He opened the door and the 
irresistible chuckle of the Scot mingled with the 
merry answering laugh of little Mary." We are 
now quite ready to hear about the fatigue and the 
worry of the day because we know the phonograph 
and the delighted child banished them as if they had 
not existed — and meantime they have not been 
loaded onto us. 

Negative suggestion is a well-marked tendency of 
many temperaments, particularly those which show 
a keen disposition toward argument. It is often true 
that some unexpected early weakness has given rise 
to a need for reassurance of personal power, hence 
the inclination to set up imaginary adversaries and 
then proceed to annihilate them. All writers will 
do well to analyze their past copy from time to time, 
and see if this tendency appears in it. The fault is 
readily corrected by persistent self-suggestion toward 
the constructive and cheerful side of things. 

Before turning to personal salesmanship it may be 
profitable to consider a mechanism which need not 
be given any further definition than putting one's 
self in the other's place. This is not only a hard 
thing to do, but is in fact seldom done sufficiently to 
get more than a superficial sense of the other point 



The New Psychology in Advertising 299 

of view. I propose to discuss it with relation to 
people and also to things, and shall outline it as a 
twofold process of the imagination in which one must 
first demobilize one's attention as far as possible 
from one's self and then remobilize it abstractly as 
connected with the objective. In a sense this is a 
faculty of perspective ; but it is not wholly that, since 
perspective merely places an object at a distance and 
does not add to one's comprehension of the object's 
own sense of relationship to its surroundings. 

Let us assume that we have on our hands the 
problem of advertising the goods of a large depart- 
ment store in a good-sized American city. Our most 
important customer is Mrs. Housewife. We know 
that we have in our store nearly all the things she 
needs for her household, particularly if we have a 
department for the sale of groceries and meat. But 
we know, too, that we have got to sell her some 
things which do not come under the head of needs 
but of wants. If all the households are run on bare 
necessities, we shall have a poor business. As a 
matter of fact, American business at the time of this 
writing — September, 192 1 — is in part suffering from 
that very trouble. The psychology of fear has 
tightened every purse-string and set every Mrs. 
Housewife paring her budget to the core. Fortu- 
nately for us this cannot last forever because Amer- 
ican temperament is both vital and courageous. 
Sooner or later, the anomaly of a country which has 
good crops and is five years behind in its building 



300 Our Unconscious Mind 

program, yet suffering from industrial idleness, is 
going to take its place in the history of war's after- 
math and be forgotten in new activity and prosperity. 

We may safely start with the assumption that we 
know our goods, as well as the tradition, policy and 
ideals of our store. These are so fundamental that 
no advertising manager of the present day considers 
himself ready for work otherwise. But we must 
make sure that the latter factors are equally under- 
stood and fully a part of the consciousness of every 
buyer and department manager. This is by no means 
so simple as it seems. I have never yet addressed a 
meeting of department executives without discover- 
ing, in the questionnaire which followed, that there 
was a wide divergence of view and opinion both as 
to what the policy really was and as to what it ought 
to be. This is natural enough, since to differ is 
human; indeed intelligent and active criticism of 
management is very much to be desired. But where 
the differences are very marked it is of first impor- 
tance to give all of them full expression, get the 
cards all on the table, and go into the matter ex- 
haustively until all understand, accept, and agree to, 
the general lines of intention. 

The next step should be one of the most thorough 
externalization of not only our own imagination but 
that of all members of the departmental staff. We 
need to project our imagination into Mrs. House- 
wife's home, and to the utmost possible extent make 
ourselves au courant of her personal psychology. 



The New Psychology in Advertising 301 

What is she driving at in life? What are her princi- 
pal motives? What actuates them? What are her 
resistances? What are her models of action? 

In the first place, she is, presumably, a mother. 
There is her relationship to children, to her husband, 
to her home, to her neighbors. We are involved in 
the comparatively simple endeavor to sell her some- 
thing. But she is, herself, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, involved in an infinitely more complex effort 
of salesmanship. She wishes, in the business ver- 
nacular, to keep herself sold to her husband's affec- 
tion, to her children, to her friends. She wishes in a 
natural pride, to "sell" home, husband and children, 
to her neighbors. She wishes to sell their future to 
her children, and prepare them to sell themselves 
effectively to the world. Her strongest primitive 
instinct concerns husband and children, with the lat- 
ter probably a bit in the ascendant, since the bio- 
logical intention of Nature needs to have the sharpest 
attention focussed on the more helpless young. (A 
mother will nearly always sacrifice herself more 
readily for children than for husband. This does 
not necessarily imply greater love, but a deeper in- 
stinctive affect.) Her models of action are partly 
those of her own Unconscious and partly those of 
the herd. She is acquiring the latter from several 
sources; her church, her contact with friends, her 
magazines, her daily newspapers. Her resistances 
are partly personal dislikes, partly the state of the 
pocketbook, partly the influence of her church, partly 



302 Our Unconscious Mind 

her husband's influence, partly current public opinion. 

These constitute the factors not so much for 
analysis as for appreciation. To help our imagina- 
tion we need to form actual contacts. We need to 
absorb the point of view of others rather than to 
project our own. We may be lucky enough to have 
such a sympathetic understanding that we intuitively 
strike the right note most of the time, but the adver- 
tising writer will make no mistake in cultivating as 
wide a family acquaintance as does the astute ward 
politician. Given the right sort of temperament, I 
am not sure but a liaison officer would be a profitable 
investment for every large advertising department. 
This possibility is partly recognized in those persons 
whose business it is to circulate through the store 
and report customer's remarks, complaints, etc. 

Having Mrs. Housewife's situation well in our 
mind's eye, we must next think of how we can 
establish in her mind a habit relation of our store 
and our goods to the motives which are directing 
her energies. This must be done without her be- 
coming too conscious of what we are driving at. We 
do not want to draw her attention from her desires 
to ours, nor from her desires to our goods. We 
want rather to stimulate and reinforce her attention 
to her own wishes, and at the same time implant 
an association of our goods to those wishes. 

We shall not accomplish this best by reflecting 
unfavorably on our competitors (a distraction of 
attention from the main line) ; by hammering on low 



The New Psychology in Advertising 303 

prices (which inevitably suggests doubt of quality) ; 
by over-stressing service (in which case performance 
always falls short of promise) ; by forever waving 
slogans (which are automatically discounted ninety- 
five per cent, for being exactly what they are, i. e., 
one's flattering opinion of one's self) ; by patroniz- 
ing her intelligence (which too many stores do) ; or 
by frequent top-lofty references to ourselves, our 
prestige and our reputation (a habit which is no more 
admired or liked in a business house than in a 
person). 

We shall do it best by going through, and insist- 
ing that all our department heads go through, one 
more projection of the imagination; this time onto 
our goods themselves. We shall make ourselves 
see these goods, not merely as desirable and reason- 
ably priced merchandise, comparing favorably with 
any to be seen in the city, but as an actual part of 
Mrs. Housewife's home, self, husband or children. 
We shall then see each article in relation to its 
eventual surroundings; actually feel its capacity to 
give pleasure; visualize the pleasure itself; get a 
living sense of the wish it has fulfilled. We shall 
see food as the sturdy limbs, the glowing cheeks, the. 
ringing laugh, of a child; as the elastic step and 
supple figure of a woman; as the vigorous muscles 
and dynamic energy of a man. Clothes will no longer 
be cloth but part of a vivid human personality. In 
a tennis racquet we shall feel the thrill of swing and 
impact, the joy of the game. We shall associate 



304 Our Unconscious Mind 

fruit-jars with the delicious things they are to con- 
tain. A dining table will not be merely a part of 
the dining-room furniture, but the center of happy 
daily contacts, of merry parties, of precious re- 
unions. Garden tools will be associated with the 
things they help to make grow, fragrant blossoming 
flowers and succulent vegetables. Musical instru- 
ments will no longer be merely things of "pure tone" 
and "sterling workmanship," but the instantly 
responsive voices of all the finer human emotions. 

In short, we shall bring to life in ourselves the 
images which we need to transmit to Mrs. House- 
wife to arouse her imagination, and excite and stimu- 
late her wish-feelings until they overcome her re- 
sistances. 

And finally I would suggest consideration of the, 
as yet, scarcely dreamed of power to direct group 
psychology through the advertising pages. Here and 
there we see evidences that the idea has occurred 
to one and another. The editorials, if one might 
so term the daily signed statements which appear as 
part of the advertising of a great New York store, 
are a step in this direction. But what I have in 
mind is rather the projection through all large adver- 
tising space, of an always cheerful, optimistic, eager 
attitude toward life. The daily news columns are 
a barometer of the rise and fall of the national 
cheerfulness. Their power of suggestion is beyond 
human estimate. Uneasiness becomes fear, fear be- 
comes gloom, gloom grows to depression and spreads 



The New Psychology in Selling 305 

like a virulent epidemic. Against the contagion of 
the daily news the advertising pages fight to stem 
the tide and keep business alive. It is of no use to 
tell people not to be afraid. That is merely sug- 
gestion to the will, at the conscious level, and en- 
counters Coue's Law of Reversed Effort. The need 
of the hour, of the day, of all the days, is a wide- 
spread and unfailingly cheerful publicity. The 
advertising page can reflect in a hundred ways, in 
its every manner of utterance, the buoyant spirit of 
American progress and sure expectancy. In so doing, 
it will honor and serve America as well as further 
its own good purpose. 

SELLING 

The art of salesmanship is the art of making 
somebody want one thing more than another. The 
"order taker" is not essentially a salesman. There 
is no reason, however, why he should not become 
one. He is a part of the organization and his 
handling of the operations devolving upon him can 
create an impression which favors further purchases. 
We must, therefore, by no means exclude him from 
our calculations, for we have to think of selling not 
merely as getting a specific order but as making a 
friend for the house. It is quite as much in the 
failure of this latter possibility as in the failure to 
close sales that selling effort falls short. Whether 
we ascribe the trouble to lack of intelligence on the 
part of the salesman, lack of the right sort of train- 



306 Our Unconscious Mind 

ing, or failure of the organization to back up the 
salesman's work, the result is the same. We must, 
therefore, consider it from all three angles. The 
basic principle always holds good; in getting an 
order which has involved any real selling, the sales- 
man has made the customer want the article more 
than the money he must pay, and more than any 
competing article; in making the customer friendly 
to the house, the salesman and the organization 
behind him have made the customer want this en- 
vironment more than that of a rival concern. 

Before proceeding with analysis of the three 
angles, let us examine the resistances, for at each 
step in the sales process there is likely to be a 
separate and distinct obstacle. First of all is the 
natural autonomic resistance to disturbance of 
equilibrium. In the preceding section was reviewed 
the omnipresent urge to buy something, an urge from 
which even our homes can no longer protect us since 
the advent of the telephone. As pointed out there, 
our minds erect barriers of defense which are partly 
habit-indifference to oft-repeated stimuli, and partly 
censoring operations which guard consciousness from 
disturbance. No proof of the importance to us of 
this system of self protection is needed, since we have 
all been aware of sharp annoyance when our com- 
posure was disturbed by the sudden importunity of 
a street vendor or the refusal of a persistent can- 
vasser to take "No!" for an answer. Even when 
a salesman is following up an inquiry, it is still not 



The New Psychology in Selling 307 

safe to neglect this condition, because inquiry is often 
prompted by a passing impulse which was far from 
strong enough to hold interest against the natural 
tendency toward maintaining the status quo. 

There are two most desirable ways to get around 
this resistance, one of which — making one's person- 
ality pleasing — will be discussed later. The other 
is to make a careful analysis of just what wishes 
would be furthered by possession of the thing which 
is to be sold, select the one or two strongest of these 
and devise a way to stimulate them from the very 
first; before calling, if possible. 

Suppose an automobile prospect were to receive, 
twenty-four hours before the salesman called, ad- 
dressed to himself and family, a neat folder showing 
in small scale two or three route outlines of one- 
day or one-week trips, attractively illustrated with 
a number of alluring bits of scenery en route. There 
would be strong stimulation of the pleasure senses; 
and the entire absence of advertising material, car 
talk or sales urge, would leave the affect unresisted. 
The first words of the salesman could then be 
directed to the topic of the trips (in which he should 
for the present purpose have made himself far more 
interested than in the immediate sale of his car), 
and if he has been over them himself and thoroughly 
enjoyed them, so much the better. He will then get 
across to the prospect a really vivid picture of the 
pleasure of motoring. As he feels the resistance 
lessening, he can bring in other descriptions. From 



308 Our Unconscious Mind 

the other's responses and comments he can quite 
accurately judge whether the time approaches for 
beginning to "talk car" specifically, or whether his 
wisest plan is to let the talk "soak in" and content 
himself, for this interview, with getting on friendly 
terms. If he has observed carefully, he will have 
noted just what the prospect's keenest motoring 
interests are, and is in a position to mail, or deliver 
in person, other interesting material. 

This illustration does not cover all cases, 
obviously, but it points to a principle. There is a 
major wish to be stimulated in every sale, and it is 
not stimulated by the salesman being so concentrated 
on his goods, so wrapped up in the idea of making 
the prospect do something he does not want to do 
— and making him do it immediately — that his point 
of view and mental status are lost sight of. The 
sort of thing usually sent to an automobile prospect 
is a letter or folder packed to the borders with 
laudatory data about the car to be sold, of interest 
only if the prospect is keen or is an experienced car 
owner, and of almost no possible interest to his 
family if he has one. Analysis of the wishes which 
one's goods can fulfill is the very beginning of sales 
art, first because it steadily increases one's under- 
standing of the buyer's mental situation, and second 
because it trains one to think of one's goods as instru- 
ments of human service instead of merely as things 
which one wants to get rid of for money. The pros- 
pect was a human being before he was a prospect, 



The New Psychology in Selling 309 

and he remains a human being when he becomes a 
prospect. The sale will be most strongly made if it 
is made by the prospect himself, in satisfaction of 
his strongly aroused wishes rather than by the sales- 
man in satisfaction of his own or his employer's 
wishes. 

The second line of resistance is commonly one of 
price; the conflict between wish to possess the article 
and wish not to spend the money. Not infrequently 
the adroit salesman will discover that the apparent 
reluctance to spend the money turns on a wish to 
spend it for something else. The hesitation may not 
be between the automobile and the price, but between 
the automobile and a motor boat or a piano. This 
possibility should never be overlooked, because it 
may be a critical factor, and there is nothing more 
hopeless than working against an unknown re- 
sistance. 

Generally speaking, any house will profit by meet- 
ing the money issue fairly and squarely, the moment 
it comes up, without hesitation or sidestepping. A 
salesman's time is worth money. There is no point 
in wasting it trying by call after call to persuade 
someone to buy something which cannot possibly be 
paid for. If such a sale is eventually closed on 
deferred payments, the costs of collection and event- 
ual replevin are enough to eat up the profit on one 
or more good sales. And instead of a friend, the 
house has made an enemy. There is a certain music 
house which for years made its chief emphasis to 



310 Our Unconscious Mind 

its salesmen, "Close the sale, and close it for the 
highest-priced instrument you can put over — but 
close the sale!" This policy, insistently pounded 
home, with little or no effective qualification, resulted 
in a large volume of business; but I am reliably in- 
formed that the house has fewer friends and more 
discontented customers than almost any other in its 
home city. That purchase which becomes a burden 
is a poor sale. 

Third in the sequence of resistances is division of 
interest or authority. This division may be within 
a family or within a business and may turn on per- 
sonal relationships which are, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, most involved. Husband and wife may 
often appear to agree and yet have an unconscious 
resistance to each other's wishes. Two members of 
the same executive staff may cooperate well enough 
superficially, and yet feel, underneath, a very definite 
jealousy and opposition. The fact of its not appear- 
ing on the surface does not dispose of the possibility. 
Knowledge of unconscious symbolism gives us the key 
that can unlock the doors of discovery. By manner 
of speaking, comment, look, trifling gesture, tone of 
voice, by a score of unconscious indications, the true 
state of mind of one person toward another is re- 
vealed in spite of conscious precaution. 

A salesman was trying to close a large contract 
with a concern operated mainly by father and son. 
Interviews were with the son, a mature executive 
who ostensibly had all necessary authority. The 



The New Psychology in Selling 311 

salesman could see that the son was thoroughly sold, 
but could not seem to escape a series of small 
detailed objections which appeared to occur always 
when the time came for action. Puzzling over the 
situation, he remembered that the father had been 
present at the first interview but not at any of the 
succeeding ones. To avoid further delay, he put a 
point-blank question, perceived in a very few minutes 
that son and father were deeply at odds, and real- 
ized too late that he should have maneuvered to 
keep the father in the situation from the first, since 
the father actually retained the power of veto over 
almost any business act of the son. 

Similarly, the purchasing department of a large 
New York house gave salesmen unending trouble 
with cancellations. One salesmen at length took his 
case direct to the president of the concern who with 
quick intelligence put his finger on the root of the 
trouble — a strong personal dislike of the comptrol- 
ler for the purchasing agent. 

Many a salesman has unwittingly "wasted his 
sweetness on the desert air" by trying to sell his 
wares to a husband when he should have sold them 
to the wife. The point of interest, in our psychology, 
is that if the salesman will train himself to observe 
acutely he can very often diagnose these situations, 
to his profit. They cannot exist without there being, 
sooner or later, perceptible evidences of them. 

Last of the resistances to be considered is the 
splitting of interest between two competing lines. 



312 Our Unconscious Mind 

The manner of meeting this to be recommended may 
occasion some surprise, for it is not at all that of 
aggression. Instead, the first thought of the keen- 
minded salesman should be a spirit of sincere help- 
fulness. The customer's problem may be really 
difficult. The salesman, presumably, has expert 
knowledge that can be of great value. If he honestly 
wishes to place this at the customer's service, and 
will refrain from belligerent or destructive attack 
on his rival's goods, the sincerity of his intentions 
will get across and be appreciated. His aggressive- 
ness, meantime, can assume a most effective line by 
his taking the following attitude with the prospect- 
ive customer: "I am neither selling my competitor's 
goods, nor trying to prevent him from selling them. 
All I should like to know is what he says about mine. 
I can then show you whether he is right or not — > 
since, naturally, I know my goods better than he 
does." This method, carefully worked out by a 
store in Pittsburgh lost one competitive sale out of 
fourteen, in a period of five months. Its success, 
however, was due not only to an appreciation of the 
sound psychology underlying it, but to the thorough 
training of every salesman in the details of apply- 
ing it. 

Returning to the three angles of criticism, we are 
to deal first with possible lack of intelligence on the 
part of a salesperson. This begins in failure to com- 
prehend the significance and importance of the posi- 
tion held. As a matter of fact any position which 
brings an employee in contact with a customer is an 



The New Psychology in Selling 313 

important position. Years of advertising may have 
been necessary to produce the impulse which has 
brought a customer into a certain store for the first- 
time. They very first contact can now add force to 
the advertising, or it can give immediate dissatisfac- 
tion sufficient to destroy all the effect of the years 
of cumulative impression. Nine times out of ten 
the outstanding fault of the inefficient salesperson 
is the unconscious one of concentration on self instead 
of on the customers. Selling merchandise is really 
an interesting game, and success in it depends upon 
having both eyes on the ball. If one eye is on a 
person at the next counter, the other on tonight's 
visit to the movies, and both ears are on what George 
is saying to the aisle manager, while the mind is 
reluctantly leaving a day-dream, the customer will 
probably have to repeat the inquiry at least twice. 
Said customer will then remark to two or three other 
people in the afternoon and evening, "Oh, they never 
want to sell you anything at that store ! You have 
to literally take the goods away from them by main 
force, if you want them at all!" This hurts the 
store; but also it makes the salesperson a failure. 
Promotion will be slow, if it ever comes at all. 

Next to the lack of attention may be put unpleasant 
mannerisms and carelessness of attitude. In a trip 
through one large store I noted several employees 
covertly chewing gum. Some have a habit of look- 
ing away when answering a question, others will 
raise the eyebrows patronizingly if the customer ven- 
tures an unfavorable opinion of goods, still others 



314 Our Unconscious Mind 

express in voice and manner entire indifference to 
the customer's particular search; but the most annoy- 
ing fault of all is carrying on, in sotto voce asides, 
an unfinished conversation with a fellow employee 
while ostensibly giving attention to the customer. 
Another annoying attitude, more commonly seen on 
the part of salesmen (particularly young ones) than 
saleswomen, is that of obsequiousness — an exag- 
gerated anxiety to please. If toned down with 
experience, it is a good fault, but if allowed to be- 
come a fixed habit it will be more often irritating 
than liked. 

Reluctant as we may be to admit the superiority 
of another nation to our own in any field, it is a pity 
that a few representatives from stores in each of 
our large cities cannot have an opportunity to observe 
the salespeople in the stores of Geneva. They have 
an interested, alert, attentive manner, a courteous 
respect for the customer's opinion, and an invariably 
smiling "Good day, Madame!" (whether Madame 
has bought anything or not) which are invaluable 
assets to merchandising. It is rarely that one leaves 
a Geneva store of any importance without a distinct 
feeling that the visit has been a pleasure. 

The second critical angle is lack of training. How 
many salespeople in stores, how many outside sales- 
men, are adequately trained? What do they really 
know about the goods they are selling? How much 
coaching have they had in the right way to handle 
the many varying types of human beings of both 



The New Psychology in Selling 315 

sexes who are going to approach them? What effort, 
what constructive criticism has been devoted to help- 
ing them correct faults of temperament or manner? 
How much interest do they feel is taken in their work 
and in their progress? How much thought has been 
given to placing them where they will be most effect- 
ive? How thoroughly have they been made to 
feel their responsibility as representatives of an 
ambitious, progressive organization? 

Every one of these questions touches an element 
of first importance in the making of a salesman or 
saleswoman. From my point of view one of the 
very best investments that a large mercantile business 
can possibly make is the salary of a highly compe- 
tent trainer of sales personnel. This would seem to 
be obvious, yet it is one of the last things which 
many executives are willing to invest money in. I 
have even heard the claim advanced that it "upsets 
the older salesmen" ! In one concern it took just 
one sales meeting to discover that only thirty-five 
per cent of the older salesmen could pass a search- 
ing examination on their own goods. A salesman 
should, first of all, know the history of his goods 
from the source of the raw material to the last stage 
in manufacture. He cannot be expected, otherwise, 
either to speak with unassuming authority or with 
fundamental enthusiasm. If he can actually be 
shown the processes of manufacture, so much the 
better. 

Before undertaking to handle customers, he 



316 Our Unconscious Mind 

should be schooled by observation, specific training, 
and practical rehearsal, in every detail of meeting 
people under all possible pre-arranged conditions of 
actual selling. His faults should be listed, pointed 
out, and worked over until they are fully corrected. 
His personality should be carefully studied with a 
view to placing him, as far as possible, in his best 
surroundings. The very thoroughness with which 
he is prepared; above all, the earnestness of his 
superior officers, will make him feel the significance 
and importance of his work, as well as the enduring, 
sincere purpose of the organization behind him. 

This brings us to the third angle; that of the bear- 
ing, on sales, of the concern's goods and service. It 
is difficult to estimate, since "good will" is variously 
set down, in balance sheets, from one dollar to tens 
of millions — and moreover the value varies greatly 
with different types of business. But, in general, I 
think it would be fair to say that one-quarter of the 
net sales-effectiveness will be lost if the service is 
bad, and up to ninety per cent if the goods seriously 
fail of the promise. The sale has been made and 
the profit gained, so there cannot be total loss, but 
the potential loss is enormous. Psychologically, the 
latter situation represents to the customer the defeat 
of a wish, reflection on personal sagacity as a buyer, 
and violation of trust. If service alone is the failure, 
matters may perhaps be squared; but unsatisfactory 
merchandise is hard to forgive. 

Finally, we come to the salesman as part of a 



The New Psychology in Selling 317 

prospective customer's environment. And here if 
ever in the relationship of man to man is needed that 
ability to get out of one's self, nay more, a com- 
plete willingness to get out of one's self; to sense 
acutely the Unconscious personality, feelings, reac- 
tions, of another. 

This view will be flatly contradicted by the go- 
after - him - hard, look-him-in-the-eye-and-make-him- 
do-it school of salesmanship; but it is nevertheless 
the next higher step in American selling methods. 
Man is an adaptive mechanism, and his defenses are 
an essential part of his adaptiveness. The affect 
to any form of stimulation varies inversely as the 
frequency of the repetition. There was a day, for 
example, when the simplest mail-series was highly 
effective in advertising, because it was a new form 
of stimulus. But with the increasing frequency of 
repetition came gradual indifference, then irritation 
at the flood of mail-cards, folders, circulars, book- 
lets, which cumbered the day's mail. The more 
repetition increased the more deeply the recipient 
"dug himself in." The defensive process was auto- 
matic, a necessary protective mechanism of the mind. 
Today an old-style mail-series is practically useless. 

This is paralleled by the history of attack and 
defense in warfare. The theory and practise of 
attack must always be progressing to new levels of 
invention, or defense will render it abortive. Now 
it is precisely this posture of attack and defense that 
American business, and particularly selling and buy- 



318 Our Unconscious Mind 

ing, needs to get away from. The laws of attack 
and defense are immutable — but so also are the 
laws of favorable response. 

There is scarcely a man, woman or child, who will 
remain on the defensive against a clearly felt en- 
vironment of agreeable, considerate, sincere wish to 
render helpful service. The "big salesman" of the 
near future will be the man who not only under- 
stands how the Unconscious minds of others respond 
to, or react against, their environment, but has so 
schooled his own temperament that his presence 
brings a sense of pleasure and satisfaction instead of 
a sense of conflict and tension. This result cannot 
be secured by mere appearance or manner. The 
salesman who relies on these has never better than 
an even chance that the personal taste of the pros- 
pective customer will be pleased. No one of us forms 
any significant liking on sight for fifty per cent of 
the people newly encountered. But any man by 
thoughtful observation of what he likes most in 
others can make a very helpful comparative analysis 
of himself, and can steadily cultivate those personal 
attributes to which others will, as it were instinct- 
ively, respond. It is the use of a principle basic to 
our psychology — making one's self the environment 
to which there is the response of extension toward 
instead of withdrawal from. 

Moreover, there are ample data for the observ- 
ant salesman, which will guide him to an understand- 
ing of the temperament with which he is dealing. 



The New Psychology in Selling 319 

In furnishings of house or office, in pictures, books, 
clothing, manner, voice, language, gestures, in every 
detail of surroundings and personal get-up, in the 
very sort of assistants employed, the prospective 
customer has told the Unconscious story of himself. 
Let it not be read too hastily, or acted upon too 
obviously. Yet I know a salesman who guessed 
rightly the soft side of a flinty customer from the 
latter's use of the simile, "Pawing like a 2:10 pacer 
ready for a race." And I know another who sold 
a grand piano because he noticed a copy of Mrs. 
Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" lying 
on the reading table, and was able to quote a line 
from one of the sonnets quite casually in the course 
of his talk. 

The salesman himself should study and practise 
the use of very varied similes. They are easily fitted 
into the sales talk, and anyone of them may elicit 
that slight smile, or change of expression, or uncon- 
scious movement of the hand, that tells of a keen 
interest being touched — which interest often gives a 
valuable index of habit or tastes. 

But through all, and in all, the spirit of the 
method is what must count. If the data are being 
searched for with the sole purpose of finding a way 
to get under the other's guard, sooner or later the 
other will know it, and all one's efforts will be tinged 
in the other's mind with insincerity. But if the true 
purpose in seeking to understand the other's person- 
ality is to adapt one's self more helpfully, to be a 



320 Our Unconscious Mind 

more serviceable human being, that too will become 
known — and it is on such a foundation that there 
may be built a sales relation, a cooperative business 
friendship, which will stand the test of time. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Note. — In presenting and recommending the following 
books for study, there is no thought of criticism of the 
hundreds of other works available in the literature which 
are not included in this list. The effort has been to 
present, within the limits of reasonable space, a group 
which should be representative of the most important 
aspects as treated by a well-diversified number of lead- 
ing authors. In several instances, Dr. Smith Ely Jel- 
liffe, of New York, has allowed me to draw on his wide 
experience, and his advice has been most helpful. Group 
A is a selection which in my judgment will lead the lay 
mind most progressively into the broader study of the 
Unconscious — psychological and physiological — as devel- 
oped in Group B. 

F. P. 
GROUP A. 

Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. (Moffat, 

Yard & Co.) 
Baudouin, Charles. Suggestion and Autosuggestion. 

(Dodd, Mead & Co.) 
Bousfield, Paul A. Elements of Practical Psychoanalysis. 

(E. P. Dutton & Co.) 
Brill, A. A. Fundamental Conceptions of Psychoanalysis. 

(Harcourt, Brace & Co.) 
Freud, Sigmund. Psychopathology of Everyday Life. 

(The Macmillan Co.) 
Tansley, A. G. The New Psychology. (Dodd, Mead 

& Co.) 

321 



322 Bibliography 



GROUP B. 

Bandler, Samuel Willis. Endocrines. (W. B. Saunders 

Co.) 
Berman, Louis. Glands Regulating Personality. (The 

Macmillan Co.) 
Brill, A. A. Psychoanalysis, Its Theories and Application. 

Third Edition. (W. B. Saunders Co.) 
Cobb, I. G. Organs of Internal Secretion. (Wm. Wood 

& Co.) 
Ferenczi, S. Contributions to Psychoanalysis. (Richard 

G. Badger.) 
Freud, Sigmund. Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious. 

(Moffat, Yard & Co.) 
Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses. (Nervous and 

Mental Disease Publishing Co.) 
The Interpretation of Dreams. (The Macmillan 

Co.) 
Frink, H. W. Morbid Fears and Compulsions. (Moffat, 

Yard & Co.) 
Hitschmann, E. Freud's Theories of the Neuroses. 

(Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co.) 
Holt, E. B. The Freudian Wish. ( Henry Holt & Co. ) 
Hug-Hellmuth, H. Mental Life of the Child. (Psycho- 
analytic Review.) 
Jackson, Josephine Agnes. Outwitting Our Nerves. 

(The Century Co.) 
Jelliffe, Smith Ely. Technique of Psychoanalysis. 

(Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co.) 

Multiple Sclerosis and Psychoanalysis. (American 

Journal of Medical Sciences, May, 1921.) 
Jones, Ernest. Papers on Psychoanalysis. (Wm. Wood 

&Co.) 



Bibliography 323 

Jung, Carl G. Psychology of the Unconscious. (Moffat, 

Yard & Co.) 
Kempf, Edward. Autonomic Functions and Personality. 

(Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co.) 
Psychopathology. (C. V. Mosby Co.) 
Lay, Wilfred. Man's Unconscious Conflict. (Dodd, 

Mead & Co.) 
The Child's Unconscious Mind. (Dodd, Mead & 

Co.) 
Low, Barbara. Psychoanalysis. (Harcourt, Brace & Co.) 
Pfister, Oskar. The Psychoanalytic Method. (Moffat, 

Yard & Co.) 
Rivers, W. H. Instinct and the Unconscious. (The Mac- 

millan Co.) 
Stoddart, W. H. B. Mind and Its Disorders. Fourth 

Edition. (P. Blakiston's Son & Co.) 
Stragnell, G. Liliom: Analysis of a Drama. (Psycho- 
analytic Review, April, 1922.) 
White, Wm. A. Mechanisms of Character Formation. 

(Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co.) 

Foundations of Psychiatry. (Nervous and Mental 

Disease Publishing Co.) 



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